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It's the end of the me at Alconbury
Page 6
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The popular Alconbury truckstop will close at the end of August — the site is expected to be used for warehousing. Chris Tindall reports.
THE NIGHTOWL truckstop in Cambridgeshire will close its doors for the last time on 31 August so the site owners can develop the land.
Nightowl managing director Murdo MacDonald says the firm would have liked to continue serving drivers at the Alconbury lorry park. but new owner Wrenbridge Land gave it three months notice to vacate the site.
MacDonald says an average 200 trucks a night use the 10-acre site. He warns that no major UK truckstop is making a profit but he is still keen to speak to councils that have land they wish louse for truck parking.
"Wrenbridge wanted us out to develop it," MacDonald concludes. -There's nothing we can do about it. Wrenbridgc has followed the rules and done no wrong.
"We are paying a gross charge in our rates of 35%, What kind of business do you have where drivers don't make much money, in an industry that doesn't have much either, where rates are so high? People don't realise the cost of these things, it's enormous. Every year several truck stops close because they are uneconomical."
Wrenbridge declines to comment on its plans for the site, but it is expected to be used for warehousing (CM 7 June). Wrenbridge associate director Nick Moore says: -[Nightowl] took a very short-term lease of about three months, which we are now coming to the end of. We have our development plans, which we aren't talking about yet. Ifs too early days."
A local operator says: "The problem is,where are all the trucks going to go? The BP site down at Brampton can't take them all."
www.roadtransport.com/cm