Steart Hill
Steart Hill
Road: A303 between Sparkford and PodimoreLocation: West Camel, Somerset
Authority: Somerset Council
References: 24/00841/FUL
Developer: Hopkins Estates
Year initiated: 2022
Work started to realign the A303 between Sparkford and Ilchester in October 2021. A few months later, Hopkins Estates began a consultation on a possible service area for the new route.
The facility would be accessed from the new Downhead Junction on the realigned Steart Hill. It would be broken into three sections: the main section would have a farm shop, with a restaurant, bakery, butcher and two retail areas. There would be a 60-bed hotel, 107 car parking spaces, 24 electric vehicle charging points, two landscaped picnic areas and five spaces for long vehicles. There would also be what they call an "energy station": a petrol station with eight bays and its own shop.
At the other end of the site would be gated access to a truckstop with 50 parking spaces and its own washroom. The third section would be a large solar farm. The developer said the whole complex would be "green and sustainably focused".
West Camel has always been a popular place for roadside facilities. The new alignment of the A303, which partly went live in March 2024, will direct traffic away from the service area at Camel Hill. The developer notes that service areas will remain accessible at both Hazelgrove and Podimore, though these are older and smaller in scale than what is planned for here. One possible cause for concern could be that, while the access from the A303 eastbound would be satisfactory, westbound traffic would need a longer detour than may be expected for a service area (although longer detours do exist, especially for truckstops).
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🗺 Grid reference: ST575254 | See SABRE Maps for historic maps | See GeoHack for modern layers