Frankley

Frankley
Moto
Frankley
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.


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