Popeyes' UK company has applied to put its orange signs on 211 High Street, the Taco Bell unit next to Primark. Comments are open until 28 October.

Popeyes, the American fried chicken chain, wants to open on Cheltenham High Street in the unit the council’s planning register lists as Taco Bell. An application for its signs was received by Cheltenham Borough Council on 5 October and is open for comments until 28 October.

The applicant is PLK Chicken UK Ltd, the company behind Popeyes’ UK restaurants, registered at Companies House as 13135583. Its agent, Montagu Evans, says in the covering letter that “the purpose of the application is to enable occupation of the Site by Popeyes”. Popeyes “have agreed to occupy the unit subject to receipt of a Planning Permission allowing for their branding of it”.

What is proposed

The application, reference 26/01571/ADV, covers signs only. The unit already has permission for restaurant use. The application form lists three items:

  • a fascia sign 3.4 metres wide and 55 centimetres tall, with letters up to 53.5 centimetres high, internally lit at 250 candelas per square metre, white lettering with orange returns (RAL 2003, Popeyes’ corporate colour) on a new aluminium fascia panel
  • a projecting sign, a double-sided 70 centimetre disc, also internally lit, in the same white and orange
  • window manifestations, a frosted vinyl strip 1.2 metres long and 8.5 centimetres deep, unlit

Consent is sought for five years, from 2 December 2026 to 2 December 2031. The signs are not already in place.

The site

211 High Street is on the north-eastern side of the street, with Primark immediately to the east. The agent’s letter places it in the Central Conservation Area and the town’s Primary Shopping Frontage, about 25 metres from the Grade II listed 202 and 204 High Street. The register shows the unit was fitted out for Caffè Nero in 2010 under a retrospective permission, 10/01014/FUL.

The application does not say when Taco Bell will leave. We could not confirm from Taco Bell’s own website whether the Cheltenham branch is still trading, and Popeyes has not published an opening date.

What the council will weigh

Advertisement applications are judged on two things only: amenity and public safety. The agent’s letter argues the surrounding frontage has “a broad range of fascia signs, projecting signs, colours and branding styles” and no consistent style.

Against that sits the council’s Shopfront Design Guide, which the letter itself summarises. It asks for signs confined to the fascia panel that “avoid excessive illumination”, with projecting signs “modest in scale” and “illuminated box signs discouraged”. Cheltenham Plan policy HE3 adds that signs in conservation areas must respect the character of the host building.

The decision is delegated to officers rather than the planning committee. The council’s target date for a decision is 1 December.

What it means for you

  • To comment, use the application page before Wednesday 28 October. A site notice goes up on 15 October.
  • The only grounds that count are amenity (how the signs affect the look of the conservation area) and public safety. Views on the food or the brand will not be weighed.
  • Taco Bell’s departure would leave the High Street with one fewer national fast-food operator until Popeyes fits out. This is the second chain move on the street this autumn, after Siren and Katie O’Brien’s opened at the Brewery Quarter.

Other applications in the borough are listed on our planning applications page.