Fleet

Fleet
Welcome Break
34 more photos in the gallery
Road:	M3 between J4a and J5
Address:	Welcome Break M3 Services Fleet Services Fleet Hampshire GU51 1AA
Telephone number:	01252 621656
Signposted from the road?	As Waitrose/McDonalds/Starbucks
Opened:	1973
Previous operators:	Trusthouse Forte
Grid reference:	SU798558
Services type:	Two sites located between junctions, connected by an internal bridge.
Visit Fleet/Welcome Break's official website Facebook Page

Built in the middle of a forest, Fleet is a popular service area on the main route between London and the South West. It can get quite busy during holiday times and is one of few services to offer McDonald's as well as KFC and Burger King.

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Facilities

General: BT WiFi, Meeting Room, Traffic Information, Welcome Break Gaming
Restaurants: Burger King, Eat In, KFC, McDonald's, Papa John's Pizza, Starbucks
Shops: Waitrose, WHSmith (with Costa Express Krispy Kreme)
Fuel: Shell (with: Costa Express Autogas LPG)
Motel: Days Inn^{[book rooms]} (southbound only)

Parking Prices

First two hours free for all vehicles, after which cars must pay £10. Further information is not available, please update this if you know.

Prices can be paid in the shop and restaurant, with instructions in each car park. They are strictly enforced by ParkingEye.

Trivia

For quite a while Fleet was the only service area on the M3, and even today it's the only 'proper' services for south-western traffic for the next 130 miles. It was also one of the first to go for a more rural design, with a tightening budget and environmental concerns not allowing for the more striking designs that had been used so far.

It's one of two Welcome Break services which have a McDonald's. In 1995 Welcome Break announced that following its success they were going to open a McDonald's at all of their services, but this process was stopped after Welcome Break was bought by Granada who already had a deal with Burger King.

The footbridge at Fleet was built with this section of motorway, but the rest of the services weren't built for a few years, so for a while we were left with a bridge connecting two sides of wasteland.

Fleet were one of the first services to try out Welcome Break's new look in 2006. It also appears to have quite a lot of Facebook groups - I count eight, most of which are complimentary.

On BBC Southern Counties Radio, Jeremy Clarkson described the "Fleet cheat" where you use the services' back exit to avoid queues on the motorway, but he was told there were now rising bollards in use, to which he suggested getting a Hummvee. They also featured in an early episode of 'Waterloo Road'.

The BBC Domesday website suggests that in 1986, 60% of the services' trade happened on the westbound side.

An additional Waitrose store opened on the northbound side on the 27th July 2012 and a Starbucks drive thru opened on the northbound side on the 31st July 2012, which is a first for a motorway service station. The new Starbucks utilised a formerly disused forecourt building.

Survey Results

In May 2012 and August 2011, Visit England rated the northbound services as 3 stars and the southbound side as 4 stars.

In 2008 the services won a five star loo award.

In 2006 and again in 2007, the toilets at the petrol station were given a three-star loo award. The services themselves were rated four-star.

The services were inspected by the AA on the 24th and 25th of March 2007. These are their results:

The services were said to be well signed and supervised, with a good shop and clean facilities. The biggest problem raised was the lack of disabled access. The lack of outside space and cold snacks were also highlighted.

In 1992 the services won the entire Loo of the Year competition.

Alternatives

AA survey results from the Automobile Association, you can view the full report and what they were looking for in this PDF document.