Truckstop plans dashed
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• Drivers' hopes for a much needed service area on the M42 at Solihull were dashed last week after the Department of Transport rejected proposals for the West Midlands site, which has parking room for at least 60 trucks.
The DOT has ordered the proposed site's local authority to turn down the planning application on the grounds that it would be a safety hazard because of its proximity to Junctions 5 and 6—the site is between Friday Lane and the B4102 near Catherine de Barnes. But service operator Blue Boar Group plans to submit a study to the local authority next month which it hopes will prove that the site that it wants to open by 1997 will not have a negative impact on its environment.
There are no motorway service areas between Frankley, west of Birmingham on the Ma and Clackett lane on the M25—a gap of around 209km (130 miles).
The DOT decision will come as a blow for drivers in the region, says the Road Haulage Association's Midlands district manager Michael Farmer; "We understand the reasons for this refusal but we are very disappointed that another opportunity to have a motorway service area has gone. There are not enough in this region," he says.