A model of the rejected Charnock Richard services design.
While Britain has plenty of motorway service areas, it has just as many which were planned but never built.
Unbuilt motorway service areas come in two forms. Perhaps the most famous is those which were half-built and never finished. Motorway service area planning used to be closely tied to the planning of the main motorway network, and as a result the construction of each motorway used to include space for a number of service areas which were never built.
In this section, we detail the original plan for service stations on each motorway, as well as listing any evidence of the projects which were never finished.
In recent times, new motorway service areas have been proposed by private companies instead of the government. This led to a boom of new proposals, often fighting over the same few parts of the country. Where available, these planning applications which were ultimately unsuccessful are all listed at the bottom of each page.
Tap one of the roads below to see a map of what its service areas were supposed to look like. There is a separate list of sites which are still Planned. For a generic guide to how service area locations are chosen, see Planning. If a road isn't covered here, try searching the names of the service areas which were built on that road.
The M6's notoriously high traffic levels saw the majority of its planned service areas brought to fruition - but there are a few which slipped through the net.
A great example of a road where none of the original plans ever came to fruition, despite having one of the most well-known half-built service areas of all at Chigwell.
When the planned M16 and M25 motorways were merged to create one London Orbital, it was difficult to plan the service areas - especially on the western side.
One of Britain's newest major motorways makes its way across some fine English countryside - which meant objections were rife whenever service areas were suggested.
A real mix of the old and the new: some examples of early planning, a half-built service area, a whole heap of private proposals and a knotted mess of public inquiries as developers compete to serve one of Britain's newest motorways.
This is the 'broken biscuits' page, where we deal with an assortment of cases which don't deserve their own page. Featuring developer and government proposals for the M8, M12, M55, M65, M73, M77, M80, M90 and more.
All of the unbuilt, unfinished and once-planned service areas have been placed on this map, allowing you to see which parts of the country received the most attention.