KEY POINTS:
Fast-food chain McDonald's concedes it has a tougher fight on its hands to build a restaurant in Balmoral after Labour heavyweights Helen Clark and Phil Goff weighed in against the plan.
Helen Clark has given written support to the Balmoral Community Group and the residents of surrounding streets opposed to the 159-seat restaurant in her Mt Albert electorate.
In a letter to the group, she said Balmoral was a residential area with an expectation of the right to quiet environmental enjoyment.
The proposed 24-hour drive-through with main entry and exit points directly on to residential streets was alarming to residents, she said.
"The impact of this proposal with the indisputable consequences of increased traffic, pollution, noise, smell and litter is not acceptable to the local community," the Prime Minister wrote.
Mr Goff is backing residents' calls for the Auckland City Council to reject resource consent for the restaurant.
The Trade Minister, whose Mt Roskill electorate borders the restaurant site, told the council in a letter there was widespread concern about the plan. Key concerns were the closeness of the site to homes, the impact on traffic and emissions, removal of trees on the site, noise, litter and rising levels of antisocial behaviour from the 24/7 nature of the operation.
Balmoral Community Group spokesman Nathan Inkpen said the support of the Prime Minister and Mr Goff was "massively important" for the profile of the issue.
"They are our local MPs. They can clearly see it is the wrong location for this McDonald's," Mr Inkpen said.
A McDonald's spokeswoman said the issue felt a bit bigger with the Prime Minister opposing the application, but the company was committed to being in the area and had no plans to drop the proposal.
She said the site was zoned for commercial use and was going through the proper resource consent process.
The council has asked McDonald's for more detail about the impact of the proposed restaurant and drive-through on surrounding roads. A hearing is expected to take place next year.
An environmental noise specialist, Jacqueline Ahmu, has reviewed McDonald's application and concluded "the application should be refused or modified to ensure all noise issues are adequately addressed".
Among her concerns was that McDonald's had not addressed late-night noise from people using or congregating in the carpark, and potential sleep disturbance for residents.
The McDonald's spokeswoman said the resource consent process was in the early stages.
