Plans for the M69’s first motorway services will come under the spotlight this week. Officials on Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council's (HBBC) plans committee will decide whether to give planning permission to the scheme which could include a Starbucks and several fast food restaurants if ultimately approved.
The Welcome Break proposal looks to build the services on land just off the A5, next to the Stretton Baskerville roundabout at junction 1 of the motorway near Burbage. Most of the site sits across the border in Warwickshire, with the planning application having also been submitted to Rugby Borough Council (RBC), which is set to make a decision on its part of the proposals next month.
The M69 was built in 1977, but has no service area along its 16-mile length. At present, drivers must use the nearest motorway services at Leicester Forest East, on the M1, or at Corley, on the M6, or leave the M69 to find fuel and refreshments in nearby towns and villages.
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That could all change if both HBBC and RBC give the plan the go ahead, with the new services set to boast a Starbucks, KFC, Burger King, Pret A Manger and a drive-thru coffee shop, as well as fuel stations for cars and HGVs, a gaming area, a shop, a seating area and toilets and showers. There would be 272 parking spaces for cars, as well as 44 for HGVs.
Planning permission was previously given to Stretton Point Developments to turn the site into a joint roadside services facility – with a petrol station and drive thru restaurant – and office development. A planning report prepared for councillors by HBBC planning officers recommends that the scheme be approved.
In response to a public consultation, the council was contacted by local residents from 10 neighbouring properties, with seven objecting to the application, including the owners of the nearby Esso petrol station. Fears were expressed over worsening traffic congestion at the A5, M69 roundabout, with one objector saying: "There are already major hold-ups, and this will only make matters worse.
"The A5 cannot currently cope with the amount of traffic using it. Soon local roads will be gridlocked by people avoiding the A5. The service area needs its own access road on and off the motorway along with another road direct from Burbage to take traffic away from Rugby Road.”
Other concerns raised by residents included the loss of the countryside, the lack of public transport connections near the site, an increase in noise, air and light pollution and a potential increase in litter, anti-social behaviour and crime. Welcome Break is one of the biggest and most well-known motorway service operators in the UK, running 44 facilities along the country’s motorway network.
The meeting to decide HBBC's part of the scheme takes place tomorrow (Tuesday, February 18) and begins at 6.30pm at the council’s Hinckley Hub. It will also be streamed online.
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