Have your say on Motorway Service Areas
Comments
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The Donnington service area is almost always 50% or more filled with HGV’s, even when their dedicated area is only half full. Mainly I suspect because it is much closer to the facilities.
I just checked on Google and both Donnington and Wetherby are Moto services. Wetherby has always been very good, there is normall a person in high vis policing it making sure the spaces are used sensibly. Pulled in last Thursday and was directed to the front of a drive through space and another MH directed in behind. Perhaps the parking bit is nothing to do with the Moto shops / restaurants bit.
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I agree about weekends and over there service areas and the only services that it seems many of the truck drivers use is the toilets, but then in France? only perishable and fuel is allowed on the road so there are many other vehicles carrying other goods parked up
Even when we have been on coach tours it has been a problem for drivers to find a comfort stop for the passengers and their legal stops
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Allan, we must be travelling different roads to you...perhaps at different times of the year?....but I can't say I've ever had a problem parking at a French or Spanish service are for a break...
We certainly had problems when we had a caravan, particularly around lunch time, which we found best to avoid. It wasn’t just the lack of space. There would be a caravan sign that took you into a lovely parking area but with a ridiculous chicane on exit that we had to inch through. On our first and so far only trip with the MH we always found somewhere, even if we didn’t stop long as the only spaces were in the sun.
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We have always Doncaster North (M18) good for caravan spaces. They are through the HGV bit but have always been caravan spaces available, albeit with the odd car and van occasionally!! These are, unusually, right near the service building too.
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"weve used several different ones on our winter jaunt from Cherbourg down to no Valencia and can pick and choose with ease..."
Hi BB, well maybe not different roads but certainly different times!
The two standout memories are in France on a weekend-great opportunity to see different single burner cooking techniques and sat dish positioning- and in Switzerland where, having had to drive through 3 services due to there being no spaces, we gave up and pulled off to have a rest and leg stretch.
The polar opposite was entering a services in Spain, between Zaragoza and Bilbao, to find just one truck-and when we came out there just our outfit in the whole parking area.
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As posted many times it seems by those who tend to travel "over there" normally it seems out of the main tourist seasons, how great it is with space every where and "empty roads" even in this very crowded island it can at times be almost the same out of the main holiday periods
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+1👍🏻. East coast route thru Yorkshire(North) Summer-gridlocked at times but always a moving queue. Late Autumn/Winter-hardly a vehicle, even then delivery trucks mainly(until weekends)
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I don't know the answer regarding the survey but I am pleased to report that when we stopped at Leicester Forest East, northbound about a week ago the whole lorry area, where caravans and motorhomes can park, has been resurfaced and reconfigured to provide more parking places. It looks as if the car parking area has also had a makeover and enlarged.
David
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Never managed to find an empty ‘caravan parking’ spot. Always full of cars - usually end up in the squalid HGV area,
I try where humanly possible to avoid MSAs
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Do you mean universally or were you referring to LFE services only, following DK's post?
I am the first to moan about difficulties surrounding caravan parking at motorway services, but I must say the notion that (a) you've never found an empty space and (b) that they are always full of cars, seems odd to my mind. Perhaps your sample size is small and mostly the same services; if not then, frankly, your claim is hard to warrant.
I prefer motorway services; expensive yes, but you know what you're going to get and can generally rely on them. I look mostly for ones with a Costa, so rarely go to Welcome Break!
In my experience, it is far more usually lorries that occupy caravan spaces. The occasional car, it is true, especially where cars and caravans park in adjacent areas, and far away from the HGV area, such as Cobham (M25), Hopwood Park (M42) and (I think - long time since I've been) Gloucester (M5), as examples; for me it is lorries that tend to be the bigger issue. Cars usually find their way easily to the legitimate car parking areas and for those areas to be full is exceptionally rare. Signage for caravans, however, is often extremely poor or non-existent. A common problem is that there is an initial sign but then no follow up. Many times I have ended up parking in the HGV spaces simply because I could not find the caravan area. I find it is very rare not to be able to park at all, although it has happened - I remember one instance at Corley (M6) for example.
Wetherby services is one of my favourites and it has good caravan parking, sometimes marshalled, but on my last two visits - at very quiet times - there were mostly lorries in the caravan area. I often visit Donington when I take my motorhome out for a run between trips. This used to have very good caravan parking, but, in the last year or so, the caravan area has become almost filled with lorries, as the picture shows on a recent Sunday morning visit. The spaces at the front are supposed to be for coaches, but I will use those if lorries occupy the caravan spaces. A lot of these are tractor units only and I have now seen this often suggesting possibly some kind of agreement with the services. There is always space in the HGV section but it is a long walk to the facilities.
Strensham is one of my favourites for excellent signage and good provision not, in my experience, abused.
As I live in sight of LFE, literally, I have not experienced parking at those services so I cannot add to DK's post.
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I've been asking the same thing myself. Apparently, the working group (The National Towing Working Group - part of Highways England) didn't meet at all 'during Covid' - this is the response the Club got when I asked if they could follow this up. Now that things are a bit easier, I'll ask the question again..... When I asked the original question, which help to encourage the Working Group to send out the survey, I'd no idea we would have to wait for so long for the result.
David
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Hi everyone. I have followed the question of the Motorway Service Stations Servey up again. The Club have tried to get a response from Highways England, but have not been able to get very much out of them... This is the response ....
"The survey that was posted on the Club Together forum was carried out by Highways England (now National Highways) between March and June 2018. The Club has repeatedly asked for feedback from this survey but has consistently been stalled with different responses, the last one being that senior staff were reviewing it prior to release. The group that coordinated this survey has not met since September 2019 and the confidence in the results, four years on, being relevant remains to be seen and is not likely to be credible. We also feel now that the issue is not just about parking at service stations for caravans but should extend to how one can charge an electric vehicle whilst towing a caravan."
Not the response we really wanted.....
David
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You tried, David 👍🏻
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Yes, well done👏🏻😄
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The group that coordinated this survey has not met since September 2019 and the confidence in the results, four years on, being relevant remains to be seen and is not likely to be credible.
Part of the reply DSB was given.
Firstly what took them so long in the first place from getting the results to their last meeting which was 18 months before Covid gave them an excuse not to bother.
Secondly, the fact that I sometimes cannot find a caravan space empty on a motorway service station is STILL relevant today. Not that much has changed and if it has it's the fact there are even more LV units looking for a space than there was 3 or 4 years ago.
Talk about finding excuses not to bother doing something.
Like TW said, thanks for trying David.
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David
The last sentence is a bit worrying. Whilst I appreciate provision will need to be made for EV vehicles towing caravans to be able to be charged on motorway services. However the downside is likely to be the unwillingness to provide additional spaces for non EV towed caravans? OK that issue will eventually resolve itself but not for some years?
David
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Indeed, David. I agree. After saying that my issue has always been safety.......mainly the problems of finding a parking space with a caravan should one need to pull over in case of tiredness or if someone 'is desperate to use the toilet facilities'.
If motorway service stations hike the prices for EV charging like they do for prices of petrol and diesel, perhaps they won't need to install as many EV charging point as they anticipate... I certainly can't remember the last time I ever dreamed of putting diesel in at a motorway service station!!! 😀😀
David
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I have been noting the comments as I posted a thread aliong similar lines as this one, and was refffered here during a reply.
I contacted MOTO and Welcome Break re their policies on Caravan Parking spaces, and noted the following points from their respective replies.Moto have a very clear policy but the implementation, at a local level, relies on User comments.. i.e Report any abuse and they will sort it. Exactly when that might happen is open to debate. Staff should be there to note incidents. and either sort it there and then or provide alternative solutions to parking problems.
Wel;come Break on the other hand, replied with some general views on how Caravan Parking spaces should be used, but offered no clear indication how to report parking abuse to them, or who to report it to.
Having said all this, the usual practise is to contract out to a Car Parking Operations and Security company, and rely soley on their employees performing the local oversight of the area.
This does not reduce the responsibility of the company using the land to provide the services legally required for Motorway Service Areas. i.e Caravan Parking spaces.
Having only recently returned to Caravanning in the last 3 years and my excursions have been limited by the Covid Pandemic. I have limited experience of using MSAs when towing. The ones I have visited have had one or two Motorhomes and large White Vans parked in the Caravan Parking spaces. ( Please note, I am not picking on Motorhomes, but the ones I saw could have easily been parked in the very underused Car Parking area.)
One particular stop we planned on, was Peterborough Services on our journey to Essex. That place is a nightmare with a caravan in tow. There is very little signage and the place was packed with cars and Vans of all sizes. making it difficult to even search for a space to put a car and Caravan. We didn't even try and carrfrom ied on.
From reading posts here and also from my thread, there are a lot of issues surrounding the problems of Caravan Parking on MSA's and other 'rest areas' too. We do need to see the results of the survey, outdated as they are now, as soon as possible.
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Busyelf said:
"The ones I have visited have had one or two Motorhomes and large White Vans parked in the Caravan Parking spaces. ( Please note, I am not picking on Motorhomes, but the ones I saw could have easily been parked in the very underused Car Parking area.)"
Until I read an earlier post in this thread, which reported one MSA provider to say that motorhomes can park in car parking areas, I had never known, in 35 years of motor-homing, that this was allowed; instead I always assumed that motorhomes (but not necessarily campers) should park in the caravan spaces and I have always looked only for the caravan spaces and either parked in them or, reluctantly, when all else failed, the HGV spaces.
Vans carrying goods most certainly should not be in the caravan area, but I am not sure it is fair, or right, to imply that motorhomes should look for car parking spaces in preference to using the caravan area. I do not think that the use of "Caravan parking" was ever meant to be that literal. On the rare occasion that the caravan parking area has been monitored by a human being, I have never been told that I should not be parking my motorhome in it.
My van is fairly long; if I had a shorter van I might look for car parking now that I know it is allowed, but I am very unlikely to do so in my current van unless the car park area had masses of space.
I think what I am wanting to say is that, whilst I now accept it is possible, I do not think that there should be any suggestion that motorhomes should prioritise finding space in the car parking area over and above making use of the caravan parking area.
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I’m not so sure it’s allowed, at least not universally. Often service areas have signage that vehicles must be parked within designated bays, otherwise a penalty charge could be incurred. Ours most certainly will not fit in one bay and although the wheels and even bodywork are contained within the width of the white lines. It would be difficult for anyone to use the spaces alongside and get there doors open.
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A motor caravan is a caravan.
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... but is only 20 ft or so long compared with a car & caravan that the signs obviously relate to which are more than twice as long. It's most frustrating to think you've found somewherb to park your car & caravan only to find a vehicle at the end of a car & caravan space that could easily have found somewhere to park on the main car park, whether its a van, motorhome or a marked police car.
On a recent outing we wanted to pull up enroute .... 1st services had a HGV & trailer parked/waiting across the caravan spaces and the next had every kind of vehicle bar car & caravans in the caravan spaces.
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