Thank you for your e-mail to the Department for Transport. I have been asked to respond to you.
The operation of all Motorway Service Areas (MSA) is governed by a variety of legal documents including Leases, Rent Charge Deeds and Traffic Signs Agreements which are entered into by the Secrertary of State for Transport and the Operator who is responsible for the running of the particular MSA concerned .
Those documents, among other things, set out the services that Operators are to provide to the public in accordance with the rules set down by the Secretary of State and the Department for Transport .
By not providing the relevant services the Operator is in breach of the legal documents and the Secretary of State is entitled to rely on the breach provisions to rectify the issue. Generally this may include entering into informal negotiations with the Operator to resolve the breach, giving the Operator a certain period to rectify the problem together with penalty measures or going as far as terminating the legal relationship between the Secretary of State and the Operator.
The actions of the Secretary of State depend on several factors and the the circumstances of individual breach concerned. The consequences subjected on the Operator can therefore vary significantly although the action taken would have to be proportionate to the nature and the impact of the breach.
The most recent Policy relating to roadside facilities DFT Circular 1/2008 specifies a requirement for Motorway Service Areas to provide parking and shower facilities designated for HGV drivers and caravans (some operators charge a fee for using the showers). However, this policy cannot be applied retrospectively, and any sites that are to be redeveloped must also comply with any revised policy requirements as long as there is sufficient land available to accommodate such provision. Free parking for up to two hours should also be provided to allow for customers to take a break and use the facilities at the service station.
If you are experiencing difficulties with a particular Motorway Service Area, where they are not providing parking for HGVs or the relevant shower facilities, please let me know their details I will contact them directly to ensure policy is being adhered to.
Kind Regards
Suki
.
Sukhwinder Cheeta
Planning & Economic Development Team
Highways Agency | The Cube | 199 Wharfside Street | Birmingham | B1 1RN
Web: highways.gov.uk
Sukhwinder Cheeta 
from Birmingham 
Regards Suki
Hi there Phil.
thanks for posting that reply.
What a total waste of time these civil servants are!!!
What mindless planet do they exist on■■?
They haven’t addressed the issue by even one word in their bland, ‘use 50 words when one will do’ nothing said at all answer.
If I remember, we were saying that there are not enough MSAs or truck stops around the country and this person has simply replied to a question that you simply didnt ask.
The reply seems to be for a specific complaint against a specific MSA, instead of a general complaint of a lack of volume of places for us to stop and take our mandatory breaks.
God help this country with people like that managing our transport policies.
Anyway, thanks again to you for at least trying.
Rant over for a week or so.
Cheers LandyLad
How does Knutsford get away with building a travelodge and then banning all HGV’s then ? They don’t stop you fuelling up there and I have seen trucks parked up but my mate did get a £250 fine on his own truck and clamped when he left the vehicle in Knutsford to get something to eat. More the fool him for paying I said, but he couldn’t afford to be clamped as the load had to be back at the depot and he couldn’t afford to lose the contract.
(apparantly 2 guys were sitting around in an unmarked white transit waiting for truckers to leave their wagons as it’s not legal to clamp a vehicle that is occupied)
Park on the pumps they will never clamp you there 
LASHHGV:
Park on the pumps they will never clamp you there
Haha, yeah. Thats a good one !
pavaroti:
Sukhwinder Cheeta from Birmingham
Regards Suki
His Nickname is Wind Cheeta
Sukhwinder is generally an Asian male name
well in all fairness to the guy. he will contact any msa that isn’t abiding by the rules.
so it’s up to us to tell them. they won’t know about any problems from an office.
what comes of it only time will tell.
bombard the guy with emails, but only genuine problems, no mmtm stuff.
Yes,there’s lots of officialese there,but this person has at least been brave or courteous enough to reply quite positively really, and give contact details.I wonder if he realised that his response was to be aired on the internet though?
I was reading an article about parking & welfare provision on the ‘strategic road network’ on the ‘intranet’ at work yesterday I don’t think I have read such uninformed bollox in a long time 
,
It was embarrasing. I only read the NW section and was rigid with boredom & the incompetence of the document .
On the bright side it did say all relevant requirements were met & there are no issues which is complete bollox to put it politely, from a truckers/on rd point of view.
It’s a good job in their view a ‘spar’ shop meets their requirements for a ‘facility’ where you can rock up & leave your artic outside while you use the facilities
Knutsford has always had a lorry ban hasn’t it? something to do with lymm.
mrx:
Knutsford has always had a lorry ban hasn’t it? something to do with lymm.
it’s a myth. we’ve all seen the sign banning lorries, but its always had parking for lorries and coaches, and its always had showers. the story about lymm being the lorry alternative to knutsford can’t hold any water, simply because lymm isn’t on the motorway, so it isn’t an msa.
my guess is it’s a rumour circulated by a moto manager some years ago, its done the rounds of an rdc, and become the truth.
and as for that sign on the m6 banning lorries. it’s about as legal as a farmer banning people from a public footpath.
limeyphil:
mrx:
Knutsford has always had a lorry ban hasn’t it? something to do with lymm.
it’s a myth. we’ve all seen the sign banning lorries, but its always had parking for lorries and coaches, and its always had showers. the story about lymm being the lorry alternative to knutsford can’t hold any water, simply because lymm isn’t on the motorway, so it isn’t an msa.
my guess is it’s a rumour circulated by a moto manager some years ago, its done the rounds of an rdc, and become the truth.
and as for that sign on the m6 banning lorries. it’s about as legal as a farmer banning people from a public footpath.
It is def a myth I’d say there’s a enough space for about 10 lorrys so long as one of our flip flop wearing freinds hasn’t parked his lorry with no regard for us foreigners.
The other thing I think is strange is the no lorry sigh at knutsford only appeared when Moto took over the running of Lymm trucks top
My guess is the bloke go got clamped probably parked in one of the clearly marked coach bays the one that specifically saysNO HGVs