Photomap

[UPDATE: #175972 and links] [More recent image: #174540 and links] [UPDATE: 22.8.21 An "area coach for Taco Bell" responded to an email I sent to the Head Of Operations for Taco Bell using an address at the www.qfm-group.com/ which seems to own that chain. It said: "My colleague and I will review your request at our earliest opportunity and I will get back to you with our course of actions shortly."] [Update: 19.8.21. A reply from Gino Casciani says: "Thank you for reaching out to me directly and bringing this to our attention. We take this seriously and will bring to the attention of our franchise partners who operate our restaurants to look into the matter."] [Image taken 9.8.21] Taco Bell, Monks Cross Drive, York. Taco Bell (locations.tacobell.co.uk/york/monks-cross-drive.html) is a drive-thru with a seating area inside and a couple of outdoor tables. The stench of pollution if you sit at the latter is immediate and unavoidable. To my knowledge on our four or five visits, only one driver has switched off his engine while waiting. It was the same driver who also avoided - by waiting to move along the queue to put in an order - parking on the striped pedestrian crossing. And, I couldn't help noticing, it was the driver of the smallest vehicle I've seen here - a mini. Despite the visible black and white markings on the tarmac and the perhaps less obvious dropped kerbs either side, drivers obstruct the pedestrian crossing. In the around 40 minutes I was there on this visit (as on previous ones) every driver obstructed the crossing yet there was a stream of people on foot needing to use it. The driver of the car in the image made a face and rolled her eyes when I rang my bell when approaching on the other side. She did reverse but then immediately moved back onto it as soon as I had crossed. The driver was in situ when I arrived so I don't know how long she had been there already. I secured my cycle (there are Sheffields), sat at a table and my partner went in to order. So perhaps, five minutes before the order was taken? The place was busy and the employee I engaged with said they were struggling with staff shortages. We put our order in at 14.55. The driver of the car on the crossing in the image finally drove off with her order at 15.25. This means she sat in the queue for at least 30 minutes with her engine running. There are no signs asking drive-thru clients to keep the crossing clear. There are no signs asking people to switch off their engines. I visited on the day the IPCC (The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change) published its report that said: "Many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some of the changes already set in motion—such as continued sea level rise—are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years."
www.ipcc.ch/2021/08/09/ar6-wg1-20210809-pr/. Other images – other topics - today: #173062 and links, and #173070 The ‘Contact customer service’ link on the Taco Bell page (locations.tacobell.co.uk/) did not work. There is no ‘About us’ link on that site. There are no statements about governance, modern slavery or sustainability, or to its parent company. Poking around the net to find the name of the MD (Gino Casciani) led me to www.yum.com/wps/portal/yumbrands/Yumbrands. The link to the UK site did not work.