They were shocked that three vehicles being seen abusing it in 10 minutes - particularly impressive when you consider how empty the motorway would have been at the time! The Ministry of Transport were frustrated by this because, as the landowner, they treated this as abuse of their land, and made numerous complaints to operators about it.Īt one stage rear accesses were considered so important to service area design that one service area considered on the M1 in the 1960s would have had both rear accesses bridge a railway line: a considerable investment for what was basically an optional extra. Rear accesses were a standard feature of service area design from the very start.Īs early as 1961, the Ministry of Transport were complaining about the gates at Newport Pagnell having been left open. The high speeds which unauthorised traffic has been seen reaching on these narrow lanes creates additional safety issues, especially if they are heading straight into the service area car park or a residential area. This isn't so bad when the only people using it are staff who have been trained on the issue, but becomes a problem when the general population are using it.įinally, when people are taking a shortcut - especially when they don't want to get caught - they tend to speed up. At some service areas, the rear access requires traffic to travel the wrong way down the one-way road, while others end with confusing or badly-aligned junctions. They are narrow, weak, and may take traffic into residential or congested areas.Īt the service station end, there is often an unconventional road layout. They were usually built at the same time as the motorway but with the minimal possible expenditure. Secondly, especially in the case of the older services, the lanes these rear accesses connect to are not designed to handle much traffic at all. Even if the unauthorised traffic is only trying to use the facilities, the policy is clear that the service area's priority should be to serve motorway traffic. More recently a planning condition will also be imposed on service stations saying the same thing. Government policy states that people must not be able to join the motorway via a service station, so the operators must ensure that is the case. The first is quite simply that it's an operational requirement. There are several reasons general traffic is not allowed to use the rear access. Heavy-duty fencing only works if it's closed.
Many of these routes have been included on Google Street View and some unscrupulous estate agents have been known to use them to advertise a nearby property having good motorway access. In some areas, enforcement is virtually non-existent, and unauthorised vehicles can be seen using the rear access every couple of minutes. While most complaints about unauthorised traffic stem mostly from the residents who have to contend with it, most of the unauthorised traffic is also people living locally.
Police enforcement varies by region, and is often prompted by complaints from residents or the highway authority. Whether or not a fine can be issued depends on the quality of the signage at that particular location, but the presence of 'no entry' signs would normally be enough: you can only really argue the situation is confusing if you're a hotel guest.
A common trick is to park the police car out of sight at the end of the road, and stop everybody caught using the lane. While police enforcement is rare, it does happen. In some areas new security measures have been vandalised within weeks of being installed. In practice, most of those systems are either broken or not used. Most service areas are fitted with either rising bollards, barriers or a number plate recording system, to prevent unauthorised traffic.
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