Makeover plan signals break from past for motorway services

Motorway services are to be given a makeover to create “beauty at every turn”, the UK’S transport minister John Hayes said.

He has created a taskforce to upgrade the design and landscape of new and existing stop-off spots.

The panel will also review the possibility of introducing local retailers to “combat creeping corporate ubiquity”, Mr Hayes said.

He added: “It is my firm belief that motorway service areas should support local independent businesses, source 0 Edmund King says lessons could be learned from abroad locally produced food and be lovely places to enjoy. Beauty at every turn, every stop.”

Most of the UK’S motorway services are owned by a handful of large operators including Moto, Welcome Break and Road Chef and often dominated by fast food and coffee shop chains.

A few stopping areas such as Tebay Services on the M6 in Cumbria and Gloucester Services on the M5 are rare exceptions offering farm shops with local produce.

AA president Edmund King said some of the original service areas such as Watford Gap or Leicester Forest East “look like a throwback to the 1960s with little of the retro appeal”.

He said: “We could learn a few lessons from the French and Germans.”