Yet another fast food chain is licking its lips at the prospect of expansion in Australia's 'fattest' city, even before Tamworth's fourth McDonalds opens.
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Hungry Jack's is aiming to open a second restaurant in the city, at a site in West Tamworth.
If it wins planning approval by Tamworth Regional Council, the store will occupy a lot at 248 Bridge Street, Tamworth.
Hungry Jack's said the new outlet would create more than 50 jobs and will not replace the existing Peel Street restaurant.
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Chief Marketing Officer, Scott Baird said the company is responding to customer demand in Tamworth
"The new Tamworth restaurant is an exciting addition to the area, and an example of the modernised look of new Hungry Jack's stores," he said.
Aside from Hungry Jack's and McDonalds, the city also has two KFCs, two Red Roosters, an Oporto and a Taco Bell.
Tamworth Ratepayers' Association president, David McKinnon, said the city would soon break a record for the most fast food outlets per capita in the world.
"We're looking that way," he said.
"I don't know how you'd prove it, but we do have an extraordinary number. It is phenomenal.
"It just seems to go on and on. They're everywhere."
He said the jobs and investment the new plan would bring was welcome, but locals needed to pressure the fast food companies to provide healthier options.
Retired Tamworth doctor Lyn Allen raised objections to the city's fourth McDonalds in December last year, telling the council it would intensify Tamworth's obesity epidemic.
The store was approved and is currently under construction.
Dr Allen despaired of convincing the council to refuse a DA for the Hungry Jack's.
"The whole of Australia is suffering from obesity, we're just the worst case," she said.
"I would think it's would be a good idea not to have a second one."
She said the city desperately needed a public health campaign to knock down waistlines and cut down the public health cost of obesity.
Almost eight-in-ten residents of West Tamworth were overweight, with 48 per cent considered obese, according to statistics from the Australian Health Policy Collaboration.
The West Tamworth statistical area had the worst obesity rates in Australia, according to the data, which was released in 2017.
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