| Frankley | |
| Moto | |
 | |
| Road: | M5 between J3 and J4 |
| Address: | Moto Frankley Motorway Services Illey Lane Birmingham Worcestershire B32 4AR |
| Telephone number: | 0121 5503131 |
| Signposted from the road? | As Greggs/Costa/Burger King (northbound) Burger King/Costa/M&S (southbound) |
| Opened: | 1966 |
| Previous operators: | Granada |
| Previous names: | Birmingham South |
| Grid reference: | SO988812 |
| Services type: | Two sites located between junctions, with no public connection between them. |
| Visit Frankley Northbound/Moto's official website Visit Frankley Southbound/Moto's official website Facebook Page | |
Neatly playing down its associations with one of the country's busiest motorways by overlooking the rolling hills of Worcestershire are two of the oldest buildings on the network. It won't win any awards for architecture, but it has a job and it does it.
Contents |
Facilities
General: Lucky Coin, Showers, Moto Free WiFi, Picnic Tables
Restaurants: Eat & Drink Co. (northbound only), Burger King, Costa, Greggs (northbound only)
Shops: WHSmith (with Costa Express Krispy Kreme), M&S Simply Food (southbound only)
Fuel: BP (with: Costa Express Krispy Kreme AdBlue Containers)
Motel: Travelodge[book rooms] (southbound only)
Parking Prices
First two hours free for all vehicles, after which cars must pay £11 and HGVs £19.50, or £21 to include a £9 food voucher.
Prices are paid using PayByPhone - more details. The location code is 2438 (northbound) and 2439 (southbound).
The fees are strictly enforced by CP Plus.
Trivia
It seems there will never be an end to the jokes about Frankley's name, especially as it's close to Rubery. It was the first service area of its type when it opened in 1966.
The southbound services have a very odd design, with a restaurant and toilets on the second floor. It's one of very few services to have a full second story, and it backs out over the exit road. This appears to be an attempt to give an optimum view over the levels to the west (with all the facilities being to the east), with the northbound side keeping out the way with a much more typical low-level design. The northbound access road then dropped below the height of the building, allowing a good view from the northbound restaurant.
The Greggs store opened here on 23rd October 2012.
Survey Results
In May 2012, Visit England rated the southbound services as 4 stars and northbound as 3. In August 2011, they gave them both 3 stars.
In late 2006 Frankley starred on the BBC's 'The Money Programme', which described it as 'terrible'. At 2pm it had ran out of food.
In 2006 Frankley was also noted for having the best toilets at any UK motorway service area!
Also in 2006, the services were rated 3/5 by Holiday Which?
The services were inspected by the AA on the 4th and 5th of April 2004. These are their results:
| Category: | Rating: |
| Road safety and parking: | Good |
| Outdoor facilities: | Very Poor |
| Access and indoor facilities: | Acceptable |
| Catering: | Poor |
| Shop: | Very Good |
| Service: | Very Good |
| Communications: | Very Poor |
| Pricing: | Very Poor |
| Final Score: | Poor |
The self-service restaurant, range of goods in the shop and staff were all good, but the building was old, dirty, had few external facilities and had a long wait for a poor range of unappetising meals.
Alternatives
| Previous: | Next: | |
| none on M5 Hilton Park (M6 north, 18 miles) Corley (M6 south, 31 miles) Telford (M54, 33 miles) Tamworth (M42 north, 34 miles) | Services on the M5 |
Strensham (29 miles) Hopwood Park (M42, 11 miles) |
| Hilton Park (M6 north, 18 miles) Tamworth (M42 north, 34 miles) | Moto services | none nearby |
With thanks to the users 'Ziathon' and 'jamess' for the information used on this page.
AA survey results from the Automobile Association, you can view the full report and what they were looking for in this PDF document.