Moto Service Station

Moto service station, Pease Pottage, Sussex

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.

Contents

Location and Directions

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

  1. Leave the M23 at junction 11.
  2. Get in the left-hand lane on the slip road.
  3. 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.

Facilities

The motorway service station at Pease Pottage contains:

  • several franchised eating establishments, which change from time to time (at December 2010: 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 sells mainly sweets, magazines, sweets, newspapers, sweets, crisps, and sweets;
  • 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;
  • vending machines for sweets and soft drinks;
  • pay phones (hey, kids — ask your parents how to use these);
  • a free wireless internet connection;
  • a monitor screen showing traffic conditions on the M23 and M25;
  • a small outdoor picnic area and children’s playground;
  • some outside seating;
  • an information stand just inside the main entrance;
  • 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 Pease Pottage service station offers two options for the hungry overnight traveller:

  • Burger King
  • The Eat and Drink Company café

The Marks and Spencer Simply Food shop at Pease Pottage is open 7 days a week from 7.00 to 22.00, and Costa Coffee from 8.00 to about 18.00 (a bit later on some days).

Parking at the Moto Service Station, Pease Pottage

Note that at busy times it can be difficult to find a parking space. If the car park is full, or if you want to have a long snooze and don’t feel like paying Moto’s parking charge, use the Google map elsewhere on this page to check out Parish Lane, Finches Field, and Old Brighton Road South, all of which are used by canny, sleepy, and cost-conscious drivers.

Disabled Parking

There are a few disabled parking bays close to the building’s entrance (behind the sign at the left of the picture at the top of this page). Moto used to employ a man with a peaked cap to keep an eye on the car park, but he disappeared some time ago. It is uncommon to see a car using these bays that actually displays a disabled parking badge.

Cost of Parking

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 May 2011) is:

  • £10 for cars;
  • £19 for commercial vehicles (or £21.50 with a food voucher to the value of £9).

Buying a Ticket

There are two ways to buy a parking ticket for the Pease Pottage service station:

  • You may use a mobile phone and a credit or debit card. Instructions are printed on signs in the car park.
  • You may pay in person at one of the tills within the building.

Threats of Parking Fines

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 issued by an unaccountable private company. They are not the same thing as Penalty Charge Notices, which are legally enforceable parking tickets issued by local authorities and other bodies subject to some form of democratic influence. Penalty Charge Notices in Pease Pottage are administered by Mid Sussex District Council.

No doubt Moto deeply regret any confusion caused by the name they have chosen for their invoices.

In Moto’s favour, it should be pointed out that:

  • Two hours is not an unreasonable amount of time to stretch your legs and have a bite to eat.
  • There are several signs in the car park which inform drivers of the conditions of parking.

Legal Status of Service Station Parking Fines

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 official-looking ‘fines’. For more about the legality of private companies trying to ‘fine’ people, see:

Invoices for parking charges are issued to the registered keeper of the vehicle whose number plate is scanned on entry to the car park. But any parking charges are owed by the driver of the vehicle. It is up to the owner of a car park to prove the identity of the driver of the vehicle, which the owner of the car park generally cannot do unless the registered keeper discloses the information. In practice, it appears that if you completely ignore the invoices, they will go away.

The money-grabbing aspect of the Pease Pottage service station car park is sub-contracted to an outfit called CP Plus.

Contacting the Service Station

None of the franchises at Pease Pottage service station are particularly easy to get hold of by phone or email. This may not be accidental.

Officially, the service station’s phone number is 01293 562852. We have heard plenty of stories of people who have tried ringing this number — whether to complain about a parking ‘fine’, to enquire about some lost property, or, in one case, to ask for CCTV or ANPR footage to be supplied to the police after a theft — all without success.

If you need to contact the Pease Pottage service station and you find that no-one answers the phone, your best bet is to contact Moto’s head office on 01525 873933.

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 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 a wider selection of shops as well as toilets and adequate parking, go to Broadfield in Crawley, just over one mile away. There used to be a petrol station close to the shops in Broadfield, but it closed in 2012.

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, which are accessible only from the A23 southbound, contain: a petrol station, a small shop, toilets, and a car wash. The next nearest motorway service station is at Clacket Lane on the M25 eastbound, about 22 miles away.

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 informative and newly revamped Chris’s British Road Directory site.

Contact Details

website
www.moto-way.com/location/pease-pottage
email
no email
phone
01293 562852 (branch) / 01525 873933 (head office)
address
Brighton Road, Pease Pottage, Sussex, RH11 9YA

See the full Pease Pottage Area Directory

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