Moto Service Station

The M23 service station at Pease Pottage is one of the smallest motorway service stations in the country. Originally owned by Welcome Break, then Granada, it is now run by Moto.

The service station functions as the village’s corner shop. Unusually for a motorway service station, there is access for pedestrians, along a path to the south of the main building.

Facilities

The motorway service station at Pease Pottage contains:

several franchised eating establishments, which change from time to time (at December 2009: Costa Coffee, Burger King, and Moto’s own-brand Eat and Drink Company);
a Marks and Spencer Simply Food shop: well-stocked (although no alcohol is permitted to be sold at motorway service stations) and not too pricey, at least by Marks and Spencer’s standards;
a W H Smith, which used to be a shambolic obstacle course, then became quite user-friendly, but is now an obstacle course again, overloaded with display racks of sweets and other junk, so allow plenty of time if you are thinking of buying anything there;
toilets, including disabled (access via a RADAR key) and baby-changing facilities: small, but kept clean;
2 cash machines (ATMs): one in the main building that takes a small commission, and one by the petrol station that doesn’t;
slot machines, which usually take a large commission;
pay phones (hey, kids — ask your parents how to use these);
a free wireless internet connection;
a small outdoor picnic area and children’s playground;
some outside seating;
an information stand;
and a separate petrol station where LPG fuel is available, and which incorporates a branch of Costa Coffee.

Despite the impression given by one of the motorway signs, there is no accommodation at Pease Pottage services, although lorry drivers may sleep in their cabs.

Opening Hours

By law, motorway service stations must provide food, fuel and toilets 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The Marks and Spencer Simply Food shop at Pease Pottage is open 7 days a week from 7.00 to 22.00.

Complaints and Lost Property

None of the franchises at Pease Pottage service station are particularly easy to get hold of by phone or email. No doubt this is not accidental. If you would like to make a complaint or an enquiry, your best bet is to ring the service station’s management directly on 01293 562852.

Location and Directions

Unlike most service stations, the one at Pease Pottage is a short distance away from the motorway:

Leave the M23 at junction 11.
Get in the left-hand lane on the slip road.
Once past the traffic lights, the entrance to the service station is a couple of hundred yards along on the right-hand side of the road.

To return to the M23, turn left on leaving the service station. The sign to the motorway is not ideally placed, and a surprisingly large number of people miss it.

Parking at the Moto Service Station, Pease Pottage

Parking is free for the first two hours. To stay longer than two hours, you will need to buy a ticket in advance that entitles you to 24 hours’ parking. The cost (at December 2009) is:

£18 for commercial vehicles (or £20 with a food voucher to the value of £7.50);
£8 for cars.

Number plates are recorded by automatic cameras on entry to the car park. Signs warn that overstayers will be issued with Parking Charge Notices and fined between £80 and £330. Despite the impression given by the use of capital letters, Parking Charge Notices are merely commercial invoices, and are not the same thing as Penalty Charge Notices, which are legally enforceable parking tickets issued by local authorities and other official bodies. It is unclear whether Moto are entitled in law to demand any more than their 24-hour charge, although no doubt plenty of overstayers do pay their ‘fines’. The money-grabbing aspect of the Pease Pottage service station car park is sub-contracted to an outfit called CP Plus.

There are a few disabled parking bays close to the building’s entrance (behind the sign at the left of the picture above).

Note that at busy times it can be difficult to find a parking space.

Traffic Advice

Busy traffic sometimes makes it difficult and dangerous to turn right out of the service station. If you want to turn right, turn left instead and use the large A23/M23 roundabout to head back towards Pease Pottage and Handcross.

The Pease Pottage car boot sale is situated almost directly opposite the service station, and often leads to big traffic jams on Sunday mornings in the summer.

If you want to buy fuel as well as visiting the shops and eateries, do your shopping and eating first by turning left as you enter; if you buy fuel first you’ll have to leave the premises and do an awkward U turn to get back inside, which may not be possible if the road is busy.

Insider Tip

For slightly cheaper fuel (but no LPG) and a wider selection of shops as well as toilets and adequate parking, go to Broadfield in Crawley, just over one mile away.

From the M23/A23 roundabout at junction 11, follow the signs for the A264 towards Horsham. At the first roundabout, take Tollgate Hill, the second exit (right) into Broadfield (see the map above). Be aware that although Tollgate Hill looks like a 50- or 60-mph road, the limit is actually 30, and there are sometimes radar traps. At the first roundabout on this road, either

go straight on (Coachman’s Drive), then go over one more roundabout, and the shops are signposted about fifty yards along to your left, on Pelham Place;
or go left (Creasy’s Drive), then follow the road to a roundabout where you will see the shops on your right. Go straight on to reach the petrol station and car park on Pelham Place.

More Information

There are no other service stations on the M23. The next nearest services are on the A23 at Handcross, about two miles south of Pease Pottage. These services contain a petrol station, a small shop, and toilets, and are accessible only from the A23 southbound.

The photograph gallery includes some pictures of the building of the Pease Pottage service station.

You can find out all about the very exciting history of the M23 at the CBRD site.

Contact Details

website: www.moto-way.com/location/pease-pottage
email: no email
phone: 01293 562852
address: Brighton Road, Pease Pottage, Sussex, RH11 9YA

See the full Pease Pottage Area Directory