Motorway Services Awards 2010
Best UK Motorway Service Area 2010
At the top end, standards seem to have slipped a bit as no MSAs earned an overall five burger ranking based on reviews for the whole of 2010 and
only three UK sites earned four burgers. So the title of Best UK Motorway Service Area is shared between
Watford Gap,
Beaconsfield and
Tebay Northbound.
Watfod Gap in particular deserves praise for moving from bottom to top - in the 2009 awards it was included as one of the worst.
Some of the comments about these sites include:
"Costa at Watford Gap Services South Bound has some of the fastest, most helpful staff I've ever encountered on a motorway service area. We all expect to pay a premium price at a service station, this is not the fault of the staff, who all appear clean, hardfworking and dedicated. Thank you. Lovely clean, friendly service." (Watford Gap)
"Plenty of green stuff to let you walk a dog, massive parking area & excellent outdoor seating area. Also a plane spotters dream as its underneath the Heathrow flightpath (this could also be a bad point depending on your view)." (Beaconsfield)
"Absolutely superb, a fab situation and wonderful, wonderful food. The soup was delicious, I would have been please to say I made it at home." (Tebay Northbound)
Since the best MSAs only scored 4/5, there are no runners-up awards ths year.
Best UK Motorway Service Operators 2010
In previous years this category has split into two, with separate awards for large and small operators ("large" meaning an operator with more than ten areas). However, the overall performance of the "Big three" (Moto, Roadchef and Welcome Break) was not only identical but also equally below par - just two burgers each, on average. So no awards at all for them this year, just an overall winner and runner-up:
Best Motorway Services Operator 2010
Westmorland was the only operator with an average of four burgers, and is the clear winner.
Runner Up 2010
Extra MSA had an average rating of three burgers, a performance which surpasses that of the established larger operators.
Honourable Mention 2010
Stop 24, a relative newcomer to the MSA scene also got three burgers for its new area near Folkestone. But, as it's a one-site operator, it doesn't qualify for an overall award.
Worst UK Motorway Service Areas 2010
A the bottom end of the scale, things have improved slightly with only ten sites getting a one burger rating (and not at all getting zero).
These are the one burger MSAs:
Clacket Lane
Rivington
Chester
Heston
Newport Pagnell
Abington
Cullompton
Tibshelf
Todhills
Oxford
Ranking Lists
More detailed rankings, including other ways of rating the sites by number of positive and negative comments, can be seen at the Ratings Page.
Notes on Awards
Awards are based on ratings for the entire year. Sites which have been open for less than a full year are excluded from the awards.
Sites in Ireland are excluded from the awards as the regulatory regime is different and hence a meaningful comparison is not possible.
Previous Awards
