Eco-friendly area in natural beauty spot to feature electric charging points, ban on fast food giants and locally sourced produce
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/aug/10/cotswold-green-motorway-servicesWith a grass roof on the petrol station and a vegetable patch beside the coach park, the concept for Britain's greenest motorway services may seem beset by contradictions. But planners have approved designs for the £35m Gloucester Gateway project which aims to reinvent the motorway pitstop for the carbon-conscious generation.
The new services, nestling on the edge of the Cotswolds between junctions 11a and 12 on the M5, will sell fuel to thousands of cars a week while at the same time trying to drive down carbon emissions by banning fast food chains and sourcing most of its food supplies from within a 30-mile radius.
The application has been fiercely opposed by local environmental campaigners, who fear it will scar the neighbouring designated area of outstanding natural beauty and warn that, far from reducing the environmental impact of the motorways, it will encourage more people to drive.
The developer, Westmorland – which already runs an independent services at Tebay on the M6 in Cumbria – says the project, due to be completed in 2013, is required under Department for Transport guidelines and will use a fifth of the energy of a conventional service area.
The car parks have been designed to allow for charging points for electric vehicles and the filling station can be adapted to bio-fuel pumps in the future. Inside, fast food concessions such as Burger King or McDonald's will be banned and instead the centrepiece of lunch will be a roast from a local farm. To avoid the anonymous atmosphere of many service stations it is designed to stress the attractions of the Gloucestershire area. The timber-framed buildings will be built of douglas fir from the nearby Forest of Dean and will be a "homely and rural" design.
"In Britain we are reliant on road transport so we have to provide service stations," said Sarah Dunning, chief executive of Westmorland. "We don't feel responsible for that. But we can say to ourselves what kind of experience do we want to create. We don't have franchises so instead of a Kentucky Fried Chicken and Marks & Spencer, we have cafes with home-made food.
"Whatever there is a lot of in Gloucestershire there will be a lot of on the menu. Everything will be fresh and made on the site. In the sandwiches it will be local goat's cheese, not of unknown origin, with artisan chutney in there as well."
The developer claims 70% of all meat, dairy, eggs and bakery products will be sourced from the region. The shops will be stocked by the produce of at least 60 local and regional businesses while 10% of the energy will come from on-site renewable technologies. Staff will be bussed in to reduce car journeys and more than half of all catering and retail waste will be recycled or composted on site for use in the gardens.
"We are not decorating a normal petrol station," said Glenn Howells, the architect. "This is more fundamental. This is the best possible motorway service station with the present fuel systems but is also designed so we can react nimbly to changes in the available fuels."
But there is opposition. Some say the green claims for the project are no more than window dressing and the planning meeting, held at the Stroud council offices yesterday, was followed by acrimonious exchanges between environmentalists and the landowners and developers.
John Marjoram, a Green Party councillor, said he was very disappointed by the decision, and said while he "couldn't fault them on design, whatever you do to disguise it it's still a motorway service area". He said the project was akin to trying to design a more sustainable airport: "The bottom line is that there will be more planes in the sky."
Emissions produced in construction and increased emissions from vehicles slowing down, stopping and then setting off again needed to be taken into consideration. Opponents are considering seeking a judicial review of the decision, he said.
"I had lots of stick today, lots of swearing," said Michael Warner, a farmer who sold his land to the developer for the project. "But I know that in the future there will be thousands of people who will be able to stop there, get the views of the Cotswolds and experience the pleasure I have had farming here for decades."
The developer, a family-owned farming business based in Cumbria, has won plaudits for Tebay services. Radio DJ Stuart Maconie labelled it "the Keira Knightley of service stations", and it was named 2009 service station of the year by the website motorwayservices.info which gave it a top "five burger" ranking, even though there are no burger concessions. Instead there is a farm shop and duckpond.
But even the site's editor, Mark Goodge, has reservations about the claims being made for Gloucester Gateway.
"The concept of an environmentally friendly service area is, to some extent, an oxymoron," he said. "A lot of people may feel that the green label is an excuse to put up prices."
Westmorland insists it is acting in the best interests of the environment and local people. It has committed to donate a percentage of turnover to a charitable trust for local good causes, which should deliver around £500,000 a year for the next 20 years.
