Motorway Services

The chances of the club lobbying about anything on behalf of its members are at best slim. It will require a different approach to bring pressure to bear. 

Today I stopped at Michael Wood Services M5 Southbound it was only 11 am but it always encourages me when caravans are directed with the cars and the lorries elsewhere.  It was empty but I parked in the overspill caravan area which was larger than most ordininary areas.  Only snag would have been a longish walk to the facilities but I could have got nearer had I not got what I wanted on board.  

This old chestnut will run & run but don't expect the CMC to do anything or the motorway operators to either. Most have stopped employing "traffic wardens" in favour of ANPR cameras subcontracted to firms like parking eye who rake in a fortune should anyone stop longer than 2 hrs without paying. The upside of this is that we use the pay by phone app & no longer pay the extortionate HGV rate. At Tamworth services I once enquired as to where the caravan parking was to be told " you can park where you like as long as you pay "

Just as an aside, if you are travelling south on the M5 soon Sedgemoor Services (south of Bristol) still don't have fuel. I'm on the M5 this weekend so will see if this has changed but there's been no fuel for months with ongoing building work in the fuel area.

I checked Sedgemoor Services today, still no sign of fuel. The next services south are Bridgwater which are probably the worst ones in the area and require a detour off the M5. 

I had the misfortune to use Scotch Corner Services recently. On the way north we stopped for something to eat. They only seemed to signpost caravan spaces at the entrance but once you drive in the signage disappears. I ended up parking in the coach park, there doesn't seem to be HGV parking, luckily it was empty and I managed to park without having to reverse into a coach bay. I later discovered that the 3 caravan spaces are in the car park and only signposted on the floor 50 yards into the carpark. On the way south I entered the rather tight to access car park and headed to the caravan spaces only to find they were too small for my Skoda Superb and Bailey Pageant Elegance. Had the services been busy and the spaces opposite been in use I would probably have struggled to get out of the parking bay too.

Here's a survey I spotted on the BBC web site today, the best and worst of the services. I think I'd put Gloucester services at the top but I don't know them all.

see here

Have just been listening to BBC Radio 2 and there are a number of listeners phoning in saying just that. Gloucester as favourite and Tebay is also popular.

Gloucester is the nearest 'we' have to the proper motorway service areas in France, which must leave our providers in total embarrassment.

yes, i know they have 'more room over there' but this doesnt excuse the poor (read pathetic) design of some of our efforts.....

just another reason i wouldnt have a caravan...at least we can park our van in most car parks....a large towcar and long caravan is a bit different...

yes, we (well caravanners anyway) need a champion in this area, i cant believe the clubs arent huge lobbyists over this issue.....

I was a bit surprised that Rownhams service on the A27 get such a poor rating as from a caravan/motorhome point of view there is usually plenty of room to park which is often not the case with a lot of service stations. Although the survey had quite a large sample I imagine that those of us that enjoy our hobby were probably in the minority in terms of giving answers. I was equally surprised that Gloucester didn't come top perhaps again because not enough of us were asked. I suppose the one thing about Gloucester is that it's not run by one of the big companies?

David