At your service

As often seems to happen, just when my wife and I have been discussing a motorhome-related subject, usually during or after a trip, a letter on the same subject appears in the next MMM!

John Adsett (Nov 2021, p11) hits the nail on the head regarding motorway service stations. We do often use the motorway system in our motorhome, in order to get to, or near, our intended touring area with minimum time spent en route. So, we often stop at the service stations for a coffee or loo break.

The provision for motorhomes is dire or non-existent. We are used to the fact that we don’t fit into a car-sized space. There are rarely, if ever, designated motorhome spaces in the UK.

So, not ideally, we normally take the least-worst option and follow signs for caravans. Signage on posts is intermittent. Signage painted on the ground is pretty useless as it gets worn away very quickly.

Quite often these caravan signs peter out. At one service station we use occasionally, following the initial sign for caravans, and subsequently avoiding taking every turning that is marked for something we don’t want (HGVs, coaches, fuel, etc) leads us back out to the exit.

Usually the caravan signs lead straight into an HGV park or a coach park – where there will be fierce notices forbidding parking except by HGVs or coaches respectively. If there is indeed a designated caravan parking area, it is very likely that it will have no free spaces – with many bays in fact occupied by HGVs, or coaches, or even just cars.

Grrr! What do we do? On our trip last week, we stopped at the London Gateway Services (southbound). After the usual complete circuit of a very badly signposted site (not just bad for us on this occasion, but for other vehicles, too), we narrowly avoided going out of the exit unintentionally, and on our second circuit, having failed to spot another caravan sign after the initial one, we ended up in the actual car park and used two spaces. Shortly after we parked, a large HGV parked alongside us!

David Callow