Motorway Services (1 Viewer)

Big bus man

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On a couple of occasions when stopping at motorway services I have headed for the dedicated caravan parking area, on most occasions these are furthest from the services and in what often seem insecure surroundings, I would not want to leave my van there for long.

Do you use dedicated parking or the main carpark, I have seen motorhomes in coach and lorry areas yet some of the caravan bays remain deserted.

On another note, can you wild camp at motorway service areas, if so would you.
 
May 24, 2014
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I prefer to park amongst the cars rather than park up amongst the "tuggers" and usually the van fit into an ordinary bay.

I have overnighted once or twice at motorway services, not by choice, but paid each time. Dont think you would get away with wildcamping as cctv checks each and every vehicle anyway.
 

Badknee

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Beware Parking Eye @ motorway services. There a very large signs telling you how long you can park for free, usually two hours. Overnight parking costs about £20.00 and IMO not worth it.

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On a couple of occasions when stopping at motorway services I have headed for the dedicated caravan parking area, on most occasions these are furthest from the services and in what often seem insecure surroundings, I would not want to leave my van there for long.

Do you use dedicated parking or the main carpark, I have seen motorhomes in coach and lorry areas yet some of the caravan bays remain deserted.

On another note, can you wild camp at motorway service areas, if so would you.

Another thing with the parking eye co; is it can be is an offence to use a bay not signed for the vehicle you are in.Or parking across bays instead of straight.
The services nearest to tunnel has this restriction in it.

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D

Deleted member 29692

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Another thing with the parking eye co; is it can be is an offence to use a bay not signed for the vehicle you are in.Or parking across bays instead of straight.
The services nearest to tunnel has this restriction in it.

That's not something restricted to private parking companies particularly. A lot of council operated car parks have a similar restriction.
 
D

Deleted member 29692

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On another note, can you wild camp at motorway service areas, if so would you.

You can stay at a service area as long as you like providing you follow the signed parking requirements i.e. only park in a designated area and pay if you're going to be there longer than they permit for free, usually 2 hours.

Why on earth you would want to is the question.....
 

Landy lover

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Would be desperate to overnight in a motorway car park - had to do it in the past with trucks and the noisiest worst nights sleep you can imagine. Traffic movements all night and truckers use them as a change over point either for trailers or load. You only have to have a few artic trailers being shunted and uncoupled and recoupled to destroy anything resembling sleep.

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scotjimland

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Mway service stations are expensive, noisy and smelly.. Better planning a stop and using a small site or cl

Last trip we did to Wales we stopped at a CL .. just off J18, M4, less than a mile off the motorway..

beautiful quiet site for a fiver, what could be nicer than this for a good nights rest ?

DSCF1944.JPG
 
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Where do you park in Motorway services to avoid the interpretation and a fine?
My MH is a Private HGV, 7.9m long.
Too long for cars, not a lorry, but if sign says HGVs?
Not strictly a caravan, certainly not a bus.
 
D

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Where do you park in Motorway services to avoid the interpretation and a fine?
My MH is a Private HGV, 7.9m long.
Too long for cars, not a lorry, but if sign says HGVs?
Not strictly a caravan, certainly not a bus.

Yes, strictly a caravan. A motor caravan. There's no such thing as a motorhome.

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WAG2CRU

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Try stopping in most "Caravan" designated spaces at night, they are usually full of HGV's !!

In the service areas at Peterborough and Cambridge, the caravan areas are inevitably occupied by cars, vans or 4x4's I have been known to ask the occupants if they were aware that they seem to have lost something significant.:eek:
 

DanielFord

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Where do you park in Motorway services to avoid the interpretation and a fine?
My MH is a Private HGV, 7.9m long.
Too long for cars, not a lorry, but if sign says HGVs?
Not strictly a caravan, certainly not a bus.
An interesting point that, and I noticed something the other day. In Rownhams services on the Eastbound side (M27), there used to be dedicated bays for caravans in the main car park. Recently it got refurbished, and those bays are now car spaces.
As you enter the services, there is a lane that is signed for HGV's and coaches, or cars in the other lane. There is no longer any provision for caravans. Now I go and park in the HGV park, since I am sure they would fine me for taking up 2 car spaces.
Interestingly, on the Westbound side, caravans are directed to park in the HGV park.
 

GJH

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Where do you park in Motorway services to avoid the interpretation and a fine?
My MH is a Private HGV, 7.9m long.
Too long for cars, not a lorry, but if sign says HGVs?
Not strictly a caravan, certainly not a bus.
Follow the advice given by the MSA opetators and published on the page I quoted above.
Try stopping in most "Caravan" designated spaces at night, they are usually full of HGV's !!

In the service areas at Peterborough and Cambridge, the caravan areas are inevitably occupied by cars, vans or 4x4's I have been known to ask the occupants if they were aware that they seem to have lost something significant.:eek:
Take photographs and complain to the MSA operator and the Highways Agency. If it is a company vehicle complain to the company CEO as well.

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D

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I stopped at Sedgemoor Northbound on the M5 the other week There were signs for caravans to follow for part of the way around but then suddenly nothing.

The only area left was the overflow car park at the back of the services building which wasn't marked out at all so I parked it there and hoped for the best. Haven't had a charge notice yet................
 

GJH

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I stopped at Sedgemoor Northbound on the M5 the other week There were signs for caravans to follow for part of the way around but then suddenly nothing.

The only area left was the overflow car park at the back of the services building which wasn't marked out at all so I parked it there and hoped for the best. Haven't had a charge notice yet................
May I suggest contacting Welcome Break to point out the lack of signage and the confusion it causes for their customers :)

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magicsurfbus

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I head for the caravan or HGV area - can't be arsed manouevering round the car park or having my side doors blocked by knobheads parking too close. I too get fed up with non-tugging cars parking in designated caravan bays. If I head for the HGV area I try to avoid taking up a trucker's bay if possible - there's usually something at the edges or a spare bit on the end.

You can overnight at most Mway service areas, but for a price that rarely seems reasonable. We stopped overnight at M2 Medway services once when we got off the ferry too late to get into Canterbury aire - it wasn't overly noisy that I remember, but we parked well away from the buildings.

I would add that if you pull into a busy Italian service area around lunchtime it's not unusual to find vehicles of all sizes parked on both sliproads.
 

Jabberwocky

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I'm a trucker spending 4 nights of the week sleeping in my cab and I avoid motorway services like the plague, expensive, noisy and as previously said some truckers are far too lazy to use an actual toilet and will usually just pee up the side of their truck, which is vile and discusting

Please don't park in the hgv spaces, spare a thought for the trucker arriving with only a few minutes left of his legally allowed working day, which will be between 13 and 15 hours long, all he wants to do is park up and sleep, there's nothing more annoying than hgv spaces full of cars, caravan and motorhomes.

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Jaws

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Equally, there is nothing more annoying to find designated caravan places filled with lorries.. Just an observation
 

Jabberwocky

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Equally, there is nothing more annoying to find designated caravan places filled with lorries.. Just an observation

anoying yes but I know who has the greater need to park there. Over the last few years services have carved up the truck parking to provide more coach and caravan parking to the point where truckers will now park where ever they can

If your hours are up you have to park, if that annoys a few people then so be it.
 

DanielFord

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All this talk of the wrong vehicles parked in the respective bays does remind of one year, heading through France with a full grey tank and empty fresh after leaving in a hurry from one stop. No matter I says, we will sort it at the next services with a camper service.
Anyway, we arrive, and it is really busy, to the extent that two pillocks have parked their cars in the camper service bay. Being an argumentative kind of chap, I parked right up close to them, blocking them both in and started to do the service. Predictably one of the car owners returns and starts shouting at me to let him out. I pretend not to speak any French and point at the signs, and take an inordinate amount of time to finish filling and emptying the tanks :D

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GWG

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Turn off the Motorway, at a rural Junction. Usually a lay-by or suitable pull in within a couple of miles. Much more peaceful.
All facilities on board, so who needs a services. :sleep::sleep:
 

Kool Kroozer

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Yes always remember that this is the UK.. RIP OFF BRITAIN ! nothing here is free (unless your not English of course)
 

GJH

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I'm a trucker spending 4 nights of the week sleeping in my cab and I avoid motorway services like the plague, expensive, noisy and as previously said some truckers are far too lazy to use an actual toilet and will usually just pee up the side of their truck, which is vile and discusting

Please don't park in the hgv spaces, spare a thought for the trucker arriving with only a few minutes left of his legally allowed working day, which will be between 13 and 15 hours long, all he wants to do is park up and sleep, there's nothing more annoying than hgv spaces full of cars, caravan and motorhomes.
The problem is that they are not actually just HGV spaces. As explained on the page I posted at #5, they are actually for all vehicles that cannot fit in the car spaces. That is especially the case where there are no designated caravan spaces.
Equally, there is nothing more annoying to find designated caravan places filled with lorries.. Just an observation
In my experience it tends to be cars/vans rather than lorries :) It's a pity that the MSA operators don't enforce the rules for caravan spaces more rigidly though. Perhaps they will if we complain (see #15 above).

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The real problem is that the roads in England are a mess. Poorly designed junctions vie with badly maintained roads and far too many people to make driving on them a real pain. Where does our road tax go? ( this is a rhetorical question).

My wife made a good point yesterday when I was complaining about taking 30 minutes to do 3 miles after 9am to deal with an underdesigned under resourced junction (M40 jct4)Why dont we have signs saying ' funded by the EU ********** fund' ? like those nice ones we travel on in France and Spain etc.
 

GJH

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The real problem is that the roads in England are a mess. Poorly designed junctions vie with badly maintained roads and far too many people to make driving on them a real pain.
I think it is that latter factor that is the real problem. Too many people concentrated in the south east is bound to cause problems.

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