Roding Valley
Roding Valley
Road: M25 between J27 and J28Location: Navestock, Havering, Brentwood, Essex
Authority: Brentwood Brough Council
Developer: Welcome Break
Year initiated: 2024
See also: Brentwood
Motorway service area operators were asked to concentrate their efforts on the M25 in Essex. After an initial proposal from Moto, Welcome Break announced their rival proposal in October 2024.
This option would differ because it would be built as a single complex, accessed from a new, dedicated 'dumbbell' junction with two roundabouts. A new dual carriageway would lead to a third roundabout, where there would be around 350 HGV parking spaces on the left, including electric HGV charging points, as well as a HGV fuelling station and a dedicated HGV drivers' welfare facility. This would make this half of the complex effectively a truckstop in its own right, as Welcome Break have been doing a few times recently.
To the right would be the more usual facilities including an amenity building, 650 car parking spaces, 20 motorcycle spaces, 20 caravan spaces, 35 coach parking spaces, a drive thru coffee shop with its own car park, and a filling station for cars with its own parking spaces. There would be between 50 and 100 electric vehicle charging points when the project opens.
In keeping with many modern developments, the buildings will all have grass roofs, with the potential for solar panels. Welcome Break have promised that woodland walks will be available, as well as an outdoor dining area.
The developer is conscious that this is green belt land. Around 12 hectares to the south of the new junction has been set aside to create a biodiversity area. They are calling it a £155 million investment, with at least 300 new jobs being created.
The project is only in its initial stages, and the details are likely to change. Welcome Break have launched a dedicated mini-site. An opposition group called "M25 No More MSAs" has formed to fight both schemes.
Planning Context
See also: M25 Planning Applications
When the M25 was built, it was suggested that eight service areas would be needed, but that only four would be built to start. Assuming some of the other proposals go ahead, this would likely be service area number six, and would fill one of the last obvious gaps.
This proposed site would be about 23 miles from South Mimms, and only 12 miles from Moto's own Thurrock services. Both of these sites have been plagued by access issues, and Thurrock has been particularly criticised for its architecture. The latest government policy suggests that motorways should have HGV parking available every 14 miles, and Thurrock is known to already have capacity issues.
More importantly, in the 2030s the A122 Lower Thames Crossing (which will be built like a motorway but bizarrely opening as an A-road) was expected to cut the corner between the M25 and the M2, adding even more traffic to this area, and cutting Thurrock out the picture.
National Highways met with motorway service area operators in February 2022, to encourage them to build on this part of the M25. While it wasn't stated, another possible motivation for them could be the public's anxiety over the M25 J23-27 smart motorway; while the planned site isn't quite within that section, it does give motorists somewhere to check their vehicles before they enter it. Moto put forward a proposal in 2022, with Welcome Break putting forward this nearby rival in October 2024. Ironically, they went public with this idea in the same week that the government announced that the A122 Lower Thames Crossing may not be built, so there is a lot that is up in the air here.
Historically, there were vague talks of building a service area near here, at Hill Hall. Two developers later tried to build one at Theydon Mount, which was thrown out in 1996.
Likely Outcome
Under the current motorway service area policy, both the Moto and the Welcome Break proposals could technically be built, as happened with the two Bridgwaters. However, under planning policy, both proposals would have to justify the damage they would cause, and allowing one would almost-certainly demolish the justification for the other. As this is green belt land, a public inquiry is likely to be necessary anyway.
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🗺 Grid reference: TQ523969 | See SABRE Maps for historic maps | See GeoHack for modern layers 8