Mike-C:
You’ll know Knutsford so well, there is no room for trucks since the HA allowed them to remove the lorry park and build a ‘modest motel’. The same HA who advise drivers that its dangerous to stop on the hard shoulder seem to turn a blind eye to the comings and goings at knutsford. So no, there is no opportunity, there’s no space, they’ve used it on something else. So now HGV’s have to go off motorway to access the services. They get clamped in knutsford for going for a wee. Thats how good at helping the motorist the HA is in this case.
There is room for trucks at Knutsford North admittedly it is only miniscule true, supposedly for emergenies only, if you are infering that trucks have to go “off network” at Lymm, 6 miles north, i bet you’d never get a trucker complain if he/she only ever had to go that far off a jnc (300 yds 
) to get a decent bacon barm. It’s not exactly very far.
There is plenty of opportunity for space at Knutsford and Sandbach from what i can see for masses of extra LGV parking, look at all the massive acreage of land/fields at the side of both sites you mention both North and South Bound, it would only require land purchase/lease and a change of use from green belt to whatever which would probably be too difficult for anyone to bother with.
Mike-C:
You don’t appear to have a good grasp of the way the organisation you work for operates, nor of current government policies and their implementation in your field of work. I don’t need to pay for toilets. The government policy is that anyone who wants to set up an MSA must provide them free before being allowed to trade.
I’ve got probably more of an idea of the “services” policies than the majority of truckers have got with regard to hard shoulder use for breaks but that’s by the by. I read all the last consultation on rest area/services planning usage etc.
Try some of the latest
Spatial planning and roadside facilities enquiries — (HAU29/10-06)
The Network Services Spatial Planning team need your help in improving the service we provide.
To enable us to better manage requests for information and advice please use the following email addresses rather than contacting individual team members:
PlanningQueries@highways.gsi.gov.uk for any Spatial Planning matters.
Roadside_Facilities@highways.gsi.gov.uk for issues related to Motorway Service Areas, Trunk Road Service Areas, lorry parking, lay-by trading and all issues relating to roadside services.
This will also help identify trends in issues or gaps in the advice we currently provide in the Spatial Planning Advice Notes (SPANS).
Your co-operation is greatly appreciated.
If you have a problem let them know, i’ve done lots of “headbanging on wall” trying to get the problem noticed/dealt with but they only act on “figures” so “when” i used to pull up behind a truck on a tacho on a services exit slip, i’d try and get a seperate log number for each vehicle to “bump” up the figures rather than 1 log for 6 trucks, i’d hand that to the driver with the HAIL number and say if there’s an issue ring them up and hound them to death until you get action.It’s up to you lot to do the same what action are you taking to raise the issue 
Now i don’t bother so the H/A don’t think there is a problem because the truckers and their “representatives” are not interested in trying to do anything to bring the matter to the fore.
If they send me to slip road sleepers, it will be batted back for police attention and a ticket if they can be bothered or another truck knocking the doors in.
i’ll try and get a copy of the picture of the “numpty” who shed his load of roof spars on the Knusford south “sleepy driver slip” last month admittedly it slid o/s but if it slid n/s it would have been nicely through a cab 