Donington Park

Donington Park
Moto
7 more photos in the gallery
Road:	M1 J23a northbound and J24 southbound (also accessible to traffic on the A42 and the A453, not far from the A6 and the A50)
Address:	Moto Services Junction 23a M1 Castle Donington Derby Derbyshire DE74 2TN
Telephone number:	01509 672220
Signposted from the road?	As Burger King/Costa/M&S
Opened:	1999
Previous operators:	Granada
Grid reference:	SK467252
Services type:	Single site located at a junction.
Visit Donington Park/Moto's official website

One large services catering for many roads at once. They are located at M1 J23a but the junction has no north-facing sliproads, so traffic heading to/from the M1 north has to leave at J24 and use the parallel A453. It forms a gateway to The National Forest, and as such it has information boards and viewpoints round the back by the lake.

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Facilities

General: Local Information, Picnic Area, Children's Play Area, Showers, Wi-Fi, LPW Truck Wash
Restaurants: Eat & Drink Co., Burger King, Costa Coffee
Shops: WH Smith, Ladbrokes, Marks and Spencer Simply Food, Fonebitz
Fuel: BP with pumps for Unleaded, Ultimate Unleaded, Diesel, Ultimate Diesel and LPG
Motel: Travelodge^{[book rooms]}

Parking Prices

First two hours free for all vehicles, after which cars must pay £8 and HGVs £16, or £18 to include a £7.50 food voucher.

Prices can be paid through the phone, with instructions in each car park. They are strictly enforced by CP Plus.

Trivia

Donington Park (commonly misspelt 'Donnington Park') was one of the first sites to gain a Marks and Spencers, the store had to be extended recently to keep up with demand (it was alleged that when the store opened it was the world's smallest). It was built where the Burger King was, and the Burger King was moved. A WH Smith store also opened here, replacing Birthdays and the Moto Shop.

When it first opened the forecourt had a dry cleaning and a photo development service, allowing commuters to stop by on the way to and from work.

The services consider themselves to be the gateway to the National Forest, and at the back by the lake there are information boards and viewing platforms. The services are unique because the hotel is built-in to the main service area, see the photos for an example.

On the 25th April 2008 Greg James presented BBC Radio 1's Early Morning Breakfast Show (4-7am) live from the services.

Survey Results

In 2006 the services won a four star loo award and were graded 3/5 by Holiday Which?.

Alternatives

Comments and Reviews

Showing the most recent responses only: for the full thread and the ability to edit your own posts, you need to view the topic in the forums.
Author: Message: Nutty Trucker I am a HGV (Artic) driver for a large company and often stop here going to/from Nottingham. I must state at this point I have never stopped overnight here so i cant comment about the showers or restaurant. Unusually though the site seems well laid out. The lorry park has plenty of spaces which are easy to get in/out of and are actually long enough to get an artic in! Inside the station is always clean and airy including the toilets. On another note, there are plenty of people mentioning being "stung" for parking fines. For anyone that doesn't know, nearly every Motorway service station in the country allows 2 hours free parking and after that you have to pay. There are also signs all over the place stating this in several different languages! Posted: 20 Jul 2010, 22:57 Insider hey guys just to let u know u can pay at the restaurant inside, and dnt ever eat from the restaurant the food really isnt food. but remember not to take out your anger the regular workers there ALWAYS ask for a manager but NEVER expect anything there trust me i know Posted: 27 May 2010, 09:08 John1 There's plenty of signs about parking, people need to open their eyes once in a while. Posted: 17 Apr 2010, 00:30 Anonymous Any parking fine administered by anyone other than the local council or the police force is NOT a parking fine, it is a parking invoice and unenforceable. Just bin the letters and tell them exactly that. DONT bow down to these cowboy pirates of the motorways. Posted: 03 Apr 2010, 10:35 Lizzy Just had a parking ticket £80 or £50 if paid straight away. Thing is I did pay the £8 luckily have my bank statement to prove it and also the text message still on my phone confirming when the time was due to run out. The worst thing is that I knew it was £8 for over the two hours as had checked before but I didnt realise you had to do it by mobile phone. We tried and tried to do the damn charge on my mobile but I wont go into the detail but it took us over an hour to do it almost making us late getting to our destination that we were continuing to in my sisters car. I was still well within the free two hours when we eventually go through. If they look at their photographic evidence they will see 4 very irate people spending a lot of money on mobile phone calls getting nowhere, then they have the cheek to send me a parking ticket.Oh another thing - do people realise that when you do pay this £8 charge they also charge you a 30p admin charge so in fact £8.30 is the full cost, not a word about that on their notices either. I wont be using a MOTO again either. Posted: 10 Jan 2010, 16:39 Anonymous Thanks for that. Will commence battle!! Posted: 25 Oct 2009, 14:41 Johnny Hi there, Moto have a parking queries email address here: parkingqueries@moto-way.co.uk Posted: 25 Oct 2009, 13:34 Franquero Just got stung same way. have you Motos address and any contact? Posted: 25 Oct 2009, 13:30 anon haha if u dnt like it dnt cum 2 us, were nt paid enuf 2 deal wit ur ignorant attitudes. its a motorway services! if u wnt cheap items and nice food go elsewhere! Posted: 16 Oct 2009, 16:42 Johnny The recommended advice is to ignore them. The more you contact them the harder it is, but apparently if you ignore them they will go away. More at the FightBack Forums. Posted: 20 Aug 2009, 17:30
Showing the most recent responses only: for the full thread and the ability to edit your own posts, you need to view the topic in the forums.

Main Page | Photo Gallery | Location, Map and Directions

With thanks to the users 'Ziathon', 'alex' and Alan Simpson for the information used on this page.