The deregulation of the provision of motorway service areas in the United Kingdom and the consequent dilemmas for planning

Abstract

The decision of the previous Government in 1992 to deregulate the provision of motorway service areas in the United Kingdom and introduce a qualified relaxation of the minimum-spacing requirement has led to a proliferation of development proposals. In virtually all cases these have been located in the open countryside where restrictive planning policies apply. This paper examines how new proposals have been evaluated and draws upon empirical material from four major appeals on the M40, M25, M6 and Ml. It shows that there has been strong local authority resistance to such proposals and concludes that applications for motorway service areas produce special and unusual problems which the planning system is currently ill equipped to resolve.