I concur with others on here that Colsterworth is a decent stop.
Pulled in on Friday last week had a full English. Very pleasant too. In fact there are 6 choices of breakfast availabe. All very healthy if you are hungry!
I think it has recently been taken over. There was a guy in there talking about future plans and the parking area was being having new tarmac laid.
Also, 4 miles to the South, is The Fox.
Great food and great service.
switchlogic:
commonrail:
yorkshire terrier:
switchlogic:
That ‘survey’ reckoned Reading Services were best in country! I nearly laughed myself to death. No Moto services is even remotely close to being best in country. Personally my top 5 would be -Gloucester North & South
Tebay North & South
Cobham (Even more so when the Nandos opens!)Totally agree what the Westmorland family have brought to services is fantastic in my view.
Toilets and showers clean,great farm shop and good food,yes its quite expensive but it’s good quality food…
More drivers need to look at the big picture a good hot meat for 8-9 quid is better than 4 sausage rolls and a custard slice for a fiver at greggs…
Drop in to strensham then call it to glouster on your way down the M5 its like a different world4xsausage rolls at Gloucester,is 14 quid
Same price as other services charge for Ginsters pasties then. They’re just much better quality at Gloucester
Too rich for my pocket,then.
A quid in the coop
.
madmackem:
switchlogic:
That ‘survey’ reckoned Reading Services were best in country! I nearly laughed myself to death. No Moto services is even remotely close to being best in country. Personally my top 5 would be -Gloucester North & South
Tebay North & South
Cobham (Even more so when the Nandos opens!)Agree with the first four, not Cobham though. Parking area no where near big enough to deal with traffic from both sides of the M25.
I think Beaconsfield is good, but showers weren’t up to much last time I was there, which was a while back mind.
emaps.elmbridge.gov.uk/ebc_plann … M=Kt11+3db
There was a planning application in for a am expansion of the HGV parking area earlier this year I think it was passed.
The top one in the link.
madmackem:
There was a survey published this week rating the 112 MSA’s, but it got me thinking.Is there a similar thing done for truckstops. I know that we have the option to vote for the best truckstop each year, but, personally i would much prefer to know which truck stops (including MSA’s) are crap and to be avoided and which are the good ones. As a rule I don’t normally park in any motorway service area unless I have been caught out by traffic and can’t get to me proffered stop
Since the Transport focus quango took on reporting responsibility for Highways England they have commissioned lots of reports at your expense to keep themselves busy 
The link to the ‘Transport focus’ report
transportfocus.org.uk/resea … ring-2017/
Or Google ‘visit England motorway services’ and it is the first result in PDF format from 2015.
This was paid for by the MSA operators (under coercion) to keep the government sweet, except one who knows what a crock of ■■■■■ it is.
There is no official government truckstop guide.
Have a pic of your pals left to right.
Transport focus Top banana Anthony Smith
Minister for Transport John Hayes overall head of gov dept for policy on MSA’s
CEO of Extra MSA’s Andrew long where they published the survey at Beaconsfield on Monday.
Fill your boots.
I’ll buck the trend by saying that some MSA’s have improved slightly over the last couple of years or so. Showers tend to have been modernised, or in some cases like Pont Abraham and Sarn Park added for the first time; I can’t remember the last time I couldn’t get a shower because it was out of order.
They’re still ridiculously expensive for what you get though. In the owners’ defence, the ■■■■ smell isn’t their fault at all but down to the dirty lazy drivers who can’t be bothered to either use a bottle then empty it down a drain in the morning, or walk to the main building or garage. And before anyone else pipes up, the vast majority of culprits seem to me to be British drivers.
In no particular order of who is top of the list for good places, but The Red Lion has good value food, big portions, famous for their curries.
Off the M1 near Northampton.
Down side, pot holed muddy parking and dusty in dry weather, fills up by 18.00 or earlier.
PJM at Coventry airport, great roast dinners,quiet to sleep in, I don’t notice aircraft .
If you walk out the gate and turn right, at the roundabout left, a pub there does food.
At the same roundabout, turn right, another pub on a river with a water mill.
Lesmaghow another top spot.
Newark livestock market, town is not far to walk, cafe in the truckstop.
Avonmouth truckstop fills up early, the village is not far to walk, Turkish kebab shop, pubs, Chinese takeaway and an Indian restaurant or takeaway.
York livestock market, good food.
Formula Ellesmere Port, money spent here was an open check book, top of the range driver facilities, including a fully equipped games room.
Fully ftted kitchen to cook your own meals.
Vending machine that offers microwave ready meals from Indian food to Italian food.
Leather seats in the tv room that incline all the way back.
Downside, lorry parking not on the primary site but over the road.Not many spaces.
Cobham and Beaconsfield are good as they have the roast meat carvery, and the giant Yorkshire pudding meal, the meal deal is good value with cubed potatoes.
Many msa, s now have Chozen Noodle franchise, meal deal good value.
Truckers Rest Cannock, friendly staff, good food, dusty parking but huge overflow at the back.
Lincoln farm, old school truckstop, lovely staff, bar to have a banter, fills up by 18.00, 250 trucks every night.
Religious owners, look for the crucifix on the roof.
For a walk, turn right out the gate to the low bridge, bear right, head to the village, good pub there, carry on a loop, you end up on the foot path to take you on the dual road back to LFC.
York is a good shout, another of my favourites.
Been using Newtonmore bar & grill a bit recently and Ballinluig ,can’t beat cheap or free ,stuff msa’s ,I like nice and quiet
Don’t get out and about much in the UK these days but, as I assume we are not talking just MSAs here but transport cafes too, I am really surprised no-one has mentioned Stibbington Diner on the A1 near Peterborough or the Cedar Cafe at Grantshouse, also on the A 1, north of the border. The latter does close at 8pm though, but great home cooking if you can get there in time. 
Sidevalve:
I’ll buck the trend by saying that some MSA’s have improved slightly over the last couple of years or so. Showers tend to have been modernised, or in some cases like Pont Abraham and Sarn Park added for the first time; I can’t remember the last time I couldn’t get a shower because it was out of order.
Those 2 are in a different country though, Highways England and Transport focus have as much sway (nil) over them as they do French and German service areas.
Road chef were investing about £30 million when they were sold by Delek a couple of years back insidermedia.com/insider/mi … m-roadchef
Unfortunately as is usual within a couple of weeks of the refurbs at Clacket and elsewhere someone has taken all the fittings off in the toilets blocks to remove the aerators etc.
The exhead of 'roadside facilities for Highways agency was telling me of a discussion he had with a truckstop owner who was in tears at the damage and vandalism caused to his business by the users. He sold it off eventually.
Sidevalve:
They’re still ridiculously expensive for what you get though.
Yup ‘captive’ market for it’s customers like train stations and airports ?
Unfortunately it’s more difficult for a vehicle the size of a truck to just nip off the network to use local facilities.
Stopped at chippenham truckstop last week, i was very impressed with the parking, showers and the jacket potato I had for dinner…also a shop full of local produce…
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
Spardo:
Don’t get out and about much in the UK these days but, as I assume we are not talking just MSAs here but transport cafes too, I am really surprised no-one has mentioned Stibbington Diner on the A1 near Peterborough or the Cedar Cafe at Grantshouse, also on the A 1, north of the border. The latter does close at 8pm though, but great home cooking if you can get there in time.
Stibbington:
Crap showers, one shower floods the entire room.
The moon has a smoother parking surface.
Food is very hit and miss. Some times its good, other times I hand it back and demand my money back.
I would rather park at Colsterworth on the way up or Pebo MSA on the way down, and given the prices at Peterborough that’s saying one hell of a lot.
Yeah i’d agree with that.
Used to get a cracking roast dinner in the woodview cafe,but it’s shut now.
speedyguy:
Sidevalve:
I’ll buck the trend by saying that some MSA’s have improved slightly over the last couple of years or so. Showers tend to have been modernised, or in some cases like Pont Abraham and Sarn Park added for the first time; I can’t remember the last time I couldn’t get a shower because it was out of order.Those 2 are in a different country though, Highways England and Transport focus have as much sway (nil) over them as they do French and German service areas.
Last time I looked they were still in the UK. However, perusal of the MSA policy here Government Policy - Motorway Services, MSA Policy | service station info tells me that “Wales has always relied on developer’s proposals for motorway services”. Given that the M4 is one of the better-provided motorways in the UK for MSA’s, at least on my side of the bridge, then your argument about user damage being the reason for lack of investment clearly doesn’t hold water, given that it’s reasonable to assume that pretty much the same drivers will use the services as in England.
Furthermore, I don’t just work in Wales, I’ve visited MSA’s in England this year and last which have had (long overdue) investment in better facilities. whilst this has admittedly come at the expense of higher charges I do think it is only fair that credit should be given where it’s due, which is the point I was making.
truckertang:
Stopped at chippenham truckstop last week, i was very impressed with the parking, showers and the jacket potato I had for dinner…also a shop full of local produce…Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
Chippenham has long been a benchmark for what a good truckstop should be like. Pity the same people don’t run Swindon; were it not for the Sainsbury’s next door to that dump I very much doubt if half the drivers would use the place.
Sidevalve:
speedyguy:
Sidevalve:
I’ll buck the trend by saying that some MSA’s have improved slightly over the last couple of years or so. Showers tend to have been modernised, or in some cases like Pont Abraham and Sarn Park added for the first time; I can’t remember the last time I couldn’t get a shower because it was out of order.Those 2 are in a different country though, Highways England and Transport focus have as much sway (nil) over them as they do French and German service areas.
Last time I looked they were still in the UK. However, perusal of the MSA policy here Government Policy - Motorway Services, MSA Policy | service station info tells me that “Wales has always relied on developer’s proposals for motorway services”. Given that the M4 is one of the better-provided motorways in the UK for MSA’s, at least on my side of the bridge, then your argument about user damage being the reason for lack of investment clearly doesn’t hold water, given that it’s reasonable to assume that pretty much the same drivers will use the services as in England.
Furthermore, I don’t just work in Wales, I’ve visited MSA’s in England this year and last which have had (long overdue) investment in better facilities. whilst this has admittedly come at the expense of higher charges I do think it is only fair that credit should be given where it’s due, which is the point I was making.
The only problem with MSA online is that it is 9 years out of date The English policy DfT 02/2013 was the latest deregulatory policy. Annex B is Roadside facilities.
gov.uk/government/publicati … evelopment
Mixed with a bit of TD69/07 (Google it as it’s PDF)
England has relied on developers proposals since 1994 when the majority of service areas were sold off to the private sector.
I bow to your better knowledge. Still stand by my statement that it’s not all crap though; although I do concede that some drivers don’t help themselves, as witnessed by the frequent “■■■■ in the park” threads.
You don’t have to, I only know a bit about it as roadside facilities was my job for a government dept for the last 4 years until I jacked earlier this year. I collated all the responses to the last consultation and regularly chatted to the MSA operators as my day job and have seen it from both sides. I don’t know how you fix it though as everyone wants everything free or as cheap as possible.
I’ve been in a couple of Road chef ones recently and I agree they weren’t too bad. I thought they were fine, I was in Gloucester NB a while ago and couldn’t even get a coffee as the queues were to long so I CBA.
It’s all subjective as everyone has different opinions I would never pay Welcomebreak/Starbucks coffee price I think it’s massively over inflated.
Sidevalve:
truckertang:
Stopped at chippenham truckstop last week, i was very impressed with the parking, showers and the jacket potato I had for dinner…also a shop full of local produce…Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
Chippenham has long been a benchmark for what a good truckstop should be like. Pity the same people don’t run Swindon; were it not for the Sainsbury’s next door to that dump I very much doubt if half the drivers would use the place.
The only time I go into swindon is to go to the Sainsburys where as when possible I make time to stop a Chippenham for a spot to eat. About the only place I regularly eat out at when at work
