"Annabel Smyth" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 27 Jun 2004 at 17:36:35, Dave Liney wrote:

As the price of fuel
on motorway service announcement signs is no longer displayed, presumably
because of the effort required, it isn't something I'd rely on happening.

They seem to manage in France.

Talking of which, why can't we have what they have in France and
Germany, where only every other service area has petrol and food, but
the intermediate ones have a place to park, with picnic tables and loos
and possibly/probably telephones and a local information board?

There is a picnic area at Heston (M4) Eastbound.

There is also a current planning application to build 120 units of
affordable housing on it - which makes me think that not many people
picnic there.


Robin

"Richard J." wrote in message
...
This is not a change in design policy. There have been several such
service areas for many years, e.g. Aust on M4 (now Severn View on M48),
Gordano on M5, Exeter on M5, in addition to Scratchwood.

Isn't Scratchwood now "London Gateway"?

And if so, why did they change the name?

And why did they change Hilton Park (M6) to (can't remember name) and
back to Hilton Park again?


Robin

"Robin Cox" wrote in message
...

There is a picnic area at Heston (M4) Eastbound.

There is also a current planning application to build 120 units of
affordable housing on it - which makes me think that not many people
picnic there.

You think that aspect was taken into consideration?

:-\

--
Brian
"When all about you is crumbling, when the arse is falling out of your
world, you need to focus on something positive in your life. Something you
can control, improve even."

Robin Cox wrote:
"Richard J." wrote in message
...
This is not a change in design policy. There have been several such
service areas for many years, e.g. Aust on M4 (now Severn View on
M48), Gordano on M5, Exeter on M5, in addition to Scratchwood.

Isn't Scratchwood now "London Gateway"?

And if so, why did they change the name?

And why did they change Hilton Park (M6) to (can't remember name) and
back to Hilton Park again?

Not sure about Scratchwood, but Hilton Park was due to a new company taking
over and presumably wanting to put their own mark on it. They called it
Birmingham North, even though it's 10 miles from M6 J7.

In message , John Rowland
writes
"JB" wrote in message
...

Actually I agree they used to be horrible (very occasionally
I'll stumble across an unreconstructed one).

I don't agree! My favourite service station is the unreconstructed Medway on
the M2. I think it used to be called Farthing Corner. It should be listed,
because you can really feel the vision of the original motorway service
stations there. The architect clearly believed in the fahn fahn fahn off der
autobahn. The newer service stations see the motorway as a hotrrible source
of noise and fumes to be ignored at all cost.

There *has* actually been a move to get Medway Services [1] listed.

Incidentally, do you know that the overbridge restaurant there was
originally open air?! The idea was that you would have this sort of
"Continental meets Space Age" dining experience of the All New Motorway,
something which would be Quite Different. Of course, it was soon
realised that the weather would render it unusable for a large amount of
time and it was roofed over [2].


[1] You're right to say that it was once called "Farthing Corner".

[2] I'm not sure when, though. Does anyone know?

--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

In message , Annabel Smyth
writes
On Sun, 27 Jun 2004 at 17:36:35, Dave Liney wrote:

As the price of fuel
on motorway service announcement signs is no longer displayed, presumably
because of the effort required, it isn't something I'd rely on happening.

They seem to manage in France.

Talking of which, why can't we have what they have in France and
Germany, where only every other service area has petrol and food, but
the intermediate ones have a place to park, with picnic tables and loos
and possibly/probably telephones and a local information board?
"Les aires de repos", or "rest areas", a wonderful idea and one which I,
too, can't understand why we've never repeated here.

In fact, in France at least, the proportion of these to "full blown"
service areas is much greater, maybe four or five to one. Indeed,
large scale service areas are actually few and far between in France; I
know as I frequently used to have to find the blasted places to keep
groups of 49 people on British coaches happy!

We did, in fact, once have a single, solitary "aire de repos" in
Britain. It was called the Brent Knoll Picnic area and was on the M5
in Somerset, in the shadow of the hill of the same name. It's now been
converted to a "full blown" service area called "Sedgemoor".

Okay, so they have
those, too - and some very nice ones, like the Aire du Baie de la Somme
near Abbeville
I used this recently for the first time. It is - as you say -
wonderful, not least because of its setting.

--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

In message , Robin Cox
writes
There is a picnic area at Heston (M4) Eastbound.
I've never noticed that. Is it slightly off the motorway (ie you leave
at a junction rather than pulling off onto an "in line" parking area"?

There is also a current planning application to build 120 units of
affordable housing on it - which makes me think that not many people
picnic there.
Bad siting I suspect. Too close to London to be a "convenient break,
especially for "picnic" type meals. And would *you* choose to picnic
in Heston?! ;-)

--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

In message , Richard J.
writes
This is not a change in design policy. There have been several such
service areas for many years, e.g. Aust on M4 (now Severn View on M48),
Gordano on M5, Exeter on M5, in addition to Scratchwood.

They do seem to have become much more common in recent times, though.

It adds traffic to the junction roundabout, possibly requiring a bigger
junction than would otherwise be necessary, and it adds journey time.
This is certainly the case at Cherwell valley Services, where,
especially since the remodelling of the A43 junction, it seems to take
*ages* to get from the slip road to the services!

It also, in my experience, leads to lower standards in the service area,
perhaps because big does not necessarily mean better.
I haven't personally noticed a difference between standards depending on
the type of service access layout. Rather, it is usually between older
and less used services (eg Frankley) and newer and busier ones (Oxford),
the former being poor and the latter rather better.

What they nearly all have in common is extremely inefficient,
ill-trained staff.
--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

In message , Robin Cox
writes
"Richard J." wrote in message
...
This is not a change in design policy. There have been several such
service areas for many years, e.g. Aust on M4 (now Severn View on M48),
Gordano on M5, Exeter on M5, in addition to Scratchwood.

Isn't Scratchwood now "London Gateway"?

And if so, why did they change the name?
Because "Scratchwood" had a reputation for being awful so (oldest trick
in the book) they went for a rebranding.

Incidentally, to get this back on topic for London (!) I would point out
that the guns on HMS Belfast are permanently trained on
Scratchwood/London Gateway. Unfortunately, they never fire...... ;-)

And why did they change Hilton Park (M6) to (can't remember name)
"Birmingham North"

and
back to Hilton Park again?
Because it was nowhere near Birmingham.

Frankley also became "Birmingham South" for a while, before changing
back. It was particularly noticeable in that instance as it lies, er,
West of Birmingham!

--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 06:53:47 GMT, "Robin Cox"
wrote:
"Richard J." wrote in message
...
This is not a change in design policy. There have been several such
service areas for many years, e.g. Aust on M4 (now Severn View on M48),
Gordano on M5, Exeter on M5, in addition to Scratchwood.

Isn't Scratchwood now "London Gateway"?

And if so, why did they change the name?

And why did they change Hilton Park (M6) to (can't remember name) and
back to Hilton Park again?

Service stations were usually traditionally named for the closest
settlement. Recently, there has been a move to relabel them for much
larger towns. So Hilton Park - Birmingham North, Forton (M6) became
Lancaster South and Bowburn (A1(M)) became Durham.

Some people protested and so a few service areas have reverted to
their original names.

Sam
--
Sam Holloway, Cambridge