STARBUCKS recently confirmed that it will shortly open a drive thru' coffee shop on the edge of the county town.

Building work on the facility on the Deane Retail Park at Hankridge, near the M5, is almost complete.

A spokesperson for Starbucks told the County Gazette: "We look forward to bringing the Starbucks Experience to customers in Taunton in the near future and will be in touch once we have more specific plans to share."

But what has the public reaction been? On the County Gazette Facebook page there has been a lot of conversation about the store opening - a lot of it consisting of people tagging their friends to say 'let's go'.

Ellie Moore commented: "Love starbucks! well excited for this since they shut the one in town!"

Emma Hartland said: "I’m so excited about this!! Will be living off Starbucks..."

Another commenter, Cem Sezer said: "Great news," but went on to say, perhaps sarcastically, "I was thinking that in Taunton we don’t have a shop to buy coffee."

His sentiment continued from a number of other Taunton locals who did not take a positive look on the new Starbucks.

Glen Brannan said: "Thank god for that. I just said to the Mrs there’s nowhere in Taunton you can get a coffee these days. All we need now is Barbers."

Jim Machado commented: "Starbucks sucks. Support locally owned coffee shops."

And Julie Ann Coombs said: "More traffic in an already congested area! At least u can have a coffee whilst u wait..."

The new Starbucks premises is in the car park outside Halfords.

The outlet will be accessible by cars driving through, as well as via footpaths around the retail site. It will also feature bike stands.

The development comes after the town centre branch of Starbucks, behind the Market House in Taunton, closed in June 2020.

It will also feature bike stands and the applicant, BAPT Limited, says the building has been "designed to be attractive and modern in appearance".