Local residents' opposition to a multinational fast food company in England: a qualitative analysis

Abstract

BackgroundLocal authorities offer opportunity for public health and planning to collaborate to address issues such as obesity, as evidenced by some local authorities restricting hot-food takeaways. Consideration of the opinions of local residents may help support this approach. In 2014, a multinational fast food company submitted a planning application to build a “two-storey drive thru” approximately 400 m from one of the largest secondary schools in England. The proposed site was in a more deprived ward in the north east, where one in four 10–11 year olds are obese. We aimed to explore the key objections voiced by local residents to the planning application, and the extent to which public health issues were of concern. MethodsResidents' objections submitted to the planning inquiry were obtained with permission from the local city council. Objections were analysed with content analysis, a widely used qualitative research method to interpret meaning from textual data. Data were analysed with NVivo (version 11), and coding categories were derived from the textual material; emergent themes and the number of residents citing key themes are reported. Findings204 objections (65% from female residents) were analysed—above-anticipated response levels to a planning application. Most (n=104) were from residents living in the most deprived quintile; eight were from residents in the least deprived quintile. Four key overlapping themes emerged as reasons for objecting to the application: “traffic” (181; congestion, safety concerns), “environment” (172; number of existing takeaways, litter), “health” (125; diet, obesity), and “proximity to school” (105). Additional themes included concerns about noise and neighbourhood safety. The strength of objections was apparent by the emotive language used to reinforce concerns. InterpretationThe generalisability of findings may be limited given this is an analysis of one local example. Health was not the only key emergent theme in opposing a multinational fast food company. These data highlight the importance of multisectoral working at local authority level and beyond to address public health challenges. Future work should actively engage with residents to consider direct and indirect health impacts of new food outlets; this is potentially beneficial to create more upstream approaches to address obesity. FundingNone.