andy187:
Wardaddy:
And the crowning cat turd on the new turf, as I walk away some prick walks into me trying to queue jump handing their diesel card in.That’s what i would do, and i suspect a lot of others do?
And me
Daftest one I’ve personally seen for parking is Southwaite Services near Carlisle where you could get 3 artics into a space, but if you did the middle one gets blocked in potentially for hours. Nearly made that mistake (newbie error) although luckily the one behind parked right back and managed to squeeze out the side. Effectively drops the capacity by a third.
Gloucester defo seems to be the best one although a tad expensive for very poor sandwiches - not tried the other food. Their bags make good bin bags. The parking although limited does seem to be well laid out, even if the exit from the car park either requires a strange angle or crawl out and hope the traffic stops.
Btw, thought you were all kidding when you said some of them smell of urine, erm maybe not. Mind you, not technically an MSA but for an alternative smell you could try Cornwall Services on the A30 which is laid out similar to an Extra but with the added “farmyard smells” from the surrounding fields.
Southwaite is a horrible service station, it’s on my patch, many moons ago, I was an army cadet instructor at a detachment in Kirkby Liverpool. We stopped at Southwaite on the way back from annual camp in Scotland, the little darlings looted the shop!!! 
Some services do manage to get it right, currently sat in the drivers lounge in Medway Services, TV on sat in a comfy chair plenty of plugs for charging up the gadgets. The shower room nice and roomy and very clean, just shows it can be done good thing is the drivers lounge is not advertised so nice and quiet.
Fleet northbound…
I wandered up to the cashier and asked to pay for the overnight parking, (the firm I worked for then paid on reciepts the following week for parking) to be told, ‘we’ve run out of tickets, you’ll have to go to the southbound side and pay there’.
It took a full ten minutes, one worried looking manager and a long queue of grumpy looking motorists before someone appeared with a new book of parking tickets and issued one to me.
‘Why the hell should I go and walk 3/4 of mile to pay to park at YOUR establishment?’ said very loudly got the ball rolling.
Like most drivers, I only stop now to have a kip or deliver something very nasty just after I’ve had me breakfast.
Lymm must be the stinkiest place I’ve ever stayed. And I’ve only ever stayed there the once. Never again.
I got up and dressed in the morning and attempted to go use the loo.
Basically had to do pirouettes all the way across the lorry park to get over the “streams” between the motors. Place absolutely stank to high heaven. Only even use it for breaks these days when I’m absolutely desperate.
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yourhavingalarf:
Fleet northbound…I wandered up to the cashier and asked to pay for the overnight parking, (the firm I worked for then paid on reciepts the following week for parking) to be told, ‘we’ve run out of tickets, you’ll have to go to the southbound side and pay there’.
It took a full ten minutes, one worried looking manager and a long queue of grumpy looking motorists before someone appeared with a new book of parking tickets and issued one to me.
‘Why the hell should I go and walk 3/4 of mile to pay to park at YOUR establishment?’ said very loudly got the ball rolling.
Like most drivers, I only stop now to have a kip or deliver something very nasty just after I’ve had me breakfast.
I only use fleet north for a quick 15 before going in to hell hole (London ) , and south if I’ve come round M25 anti clockwise if I’ve come round clockwise I use clackett lane
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Used Washington once too, before I knew better, after 7pm, you can’t even pay for parking Northbound, have to go across the bridge.
I know I’m as guilty as anyone, but why we settle for these run down, overpriced, ageing hell-holes is beyond me.
Somebody should tell Teresa May, or maybe even whoever the transport minister is these days, to go spend a few nights on some services.
I’m sure we’d soon see a change then.
I don’t know why we can’t just pay some kind of nationwide flat rate and be allowed to use any towns car parks between say 7pm and 7am.
Naturally there would have to be noise restrictions, so no bloody fridges, and those sodding Charlies that run so much electrical gear that they need to run their engines for 10 minutes every hour.
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PaulNowak:
Used Washington once too, before I knew better, after 7pm, you can’t even pay for parking Northbound, have to go across the bridge.I know I’m as guilty as anyone, but why we settle for these run down, overpriced, ageing hell-holes is beyond me.
Somebody should tell Teresa May, or maybe even whoever the transport minister is these days, to go spend a few nights on some services.
I’m sure we’d soon see a change then.
I don’t know why we can’t just pay some kind of nationwide flat rate and be allowed to use any towns car parks between say 7pm and 7am.
Naturally there would have to be noise restrictions, so no bloody fridges, and those sodding Charlies that run so much electrical gear that they need to run their engines for 10 minutes every hour.
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IIRC not that long ago the bosses from these MSA were asked to spend a night in them only 1 took it up the rest declined wonder why so have improved since but not many
Tibself northbound on a night the parking is ridicules if you in early enough then can park correct but most of them sit back so you can t park behind them or some just come in park across any where the place needs resurfacing ( although have seen worse ) also lines need a repaint
Washington always been like that & going into get fuel north bound is a joke but then I never park there as too close to home there are places to park if you know where 
I do now Ang [emoji6]
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Have a gander at the shower in Washington. I dare ya!
bigvern1:
Have a gander at the shower in Washington. I dare ya!
My shower is fine thanks
bigvern1:
Have a gander at the shower in Washington. I dare ya!
No showers in the Ladies
The one in the gents is rank!
bigvern1:
The one in the gents is rank!
Take your word for it but as only 10 min from home no need to visit