Stafford (North)

Stafford (North)
Moto
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Road:	M6 northbound between J14 and J15
Address:	Moto Hospitality M6 Northbound Stafford Motorway Service Area Stone Staffordshire ST15 0EU
Telephone number:	01785 811188
Signposted from the road?	As Burger King/Costa/M&S
Opened:	1996
Previous operators:	Mobil??, Granada
Grid reference:	SJ884320
Services type:	Single site located between junctions on one side of the motorway.
Visit Stafford (North)/Moto's official website

A popular but busy service station on the northbound side of the M6, with southbound traffic being sent to RoadChef's almost-as-good Stafford (South). This side of the services is well known for its large lake and wonderful garden, as well as for its cleanliness.

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Facilities

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

Parking Prices

First two hours free for all vehicles, after which cars must pay £8 and HGVs £14, or £16 to include a £6 food voucher.

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

Trivia

The services opened in 1996, earlier than Stafford (South), which is the only real reason for the difference between the two sites. Since opening the Retail Store has been converted into a WH Smith, and the Birthdays has become a Fonebitz.

Stafford (North) featured on the BBC's Top Gear in 2002, in which Jeremy Clarkson described the access roads to the services as being "like a race track", featuring an apex, hairpin bend and a pit stop. It also appeared in their Motorway Cops in 2009 after a lorry raid.

The services used to have a Burger King drive through at the side of the petrol station, but it has been boarded up due to a lack of custom. A Burger King can still be found in the main building and in the BP garage.

Granada opened the services in conjunction with Mobil, who may have been the planned operator of the whole site. At the same time Granada put in an application to build a southbound service area at the same place, but for some reason this never materialised. Both the northbound services and the planned southbound ones were deliberately set back from the road by 67 metres to allow for the M6 to be fully widened, as has been planned several times.

Survey Results

In 2006 and again in 2007, the services won a four star loo award.

Also in 2006, the services were rated as 5/5 by Holiday Which? They said it was spotless and had some great outdoor facilities, but it didn't win, Tebay did.

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: David I really like this service area - it's the only one in the UK I've bought food at. It's the brilliant setting, looking out over a lake with fountain and birdlife that does it. One big problem means I can only give it 4 and not 5 stars: the access roads are in a terrible state, full of dangerous potholes. Posted: 28 Apr 2010, 23:39 Johnny Anonymous wrote: How come Stafford North has a different operator to Stafford South? Weird! It's not clear, but it just looks like Granada saw the location and wanted to build something small and simple (many years ago it wasn't uncommon for services to be built in two halves). Presumably, Blue Boar then realised that leaves a gap on the southbound side that would be easy to fill. Posted: 20 May 2009, 19:44 Anonymous How come Stafford North has a different operator to Stafford South? Weird! Posted: 20 May 2009, 19:38 Ziathon This is the site i work on i will get some photos for you guys over the next few days Posted: 07 May 2006, 20:21 Admin Post your comments and reviews for Stafford (North) here, or you can return to Stafford (North). Posted: 08 Jan 2006, 12:24
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.

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With thanks to the user 'Ziathon' for the information used on this page.