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Unbuilt Services
MSO Home - Unbuilt Services
Until 1992, the government would choose where they wanted a service area to be built and they would buy and shape the land, then lease it out to an operator.
The standard distance between motorway services is 28 miles or thereabouts. During the 70s the government decided that the busiest of motorways should have services every 12 miles, so they went out and bought land where they wanted new services to be. The problem was that running this many services costed quite a bit, and none of the operators liked the idea of having competition 12 miles either side, so the idea never really took off.
The 12 mile idea was soon dropped and the sites which were marked are now too small for a modern service station. This leaves us with many points on the motorway network where land was prepared for a service area but it was never used, and this section of the site takes a look at them. Click on one of these for further information:
Paper Services
Most of this section covers services where construction was started but never finished. However, this page lists services where the only evidence to suggest their existence can be found on government documentation. This lot never made it to construction.
Abbey Barnes
At the bottom end of the M40, a road with a poor accident record and a dire need for a new service area.
Chigwell
Now a police control depot, this service area would have been needed if the M11 was built to the original plans.
Doxey
The M6 was one of the few roads where almost all of the planned services were built, but this complete-looking one is one of three exceptions.
Haydock Park
Very noticeable from the air, this site would have sharp south-facing sliproads and the north-facing ones would have been literally yards from M6 J23.
Kempshott
Also known as Hatch Warren, these services were never given an official name but they would have been at what was then the end of the M3. Today, half of the site has become a housing estate.
Melkinthorpe
It doesn't have an official name, but the sudden change in the highway boundary on the M6 gives this one away.
Meon Valley
Also known as Segensworth, this unbuilt service area has left M27 J9 with a mile-long sliproad, an unused sliproad and three 'sliproads to nowhere'.
Stretton-under-Fosse
Also known as Harborough Magna, this site sits at the end of the M6 close to where Extra currently want to build a service area.