Strensham services are situated on the M5 motorway south of Worcester, just north of the junction with the M50 motorway. This makes them a very useful stop for drivers travelling between Birmingham and Bristol or south Wales. I like the fact that when travelling northbound, there is a half-mile long dedicated lane so that traffic from the M50 can reach the complex without ever having to merge fully into through M5 traffic.

The services were first opened on a nearby site in the early 1960s, but became outdated and cramped with the increasing levels of motorway traffic in the 1980s, and were replaced with the present complex in 1991. The northbound and southbound sites are completely separated, and it is not possible to pass between them, though both are run under the RoadChef brand name and have similar levels of service.

Facilities are good in both directions: there are restaurants on both sides, though unusually the brands offered differs between sites, with a McDonald’s and Costa Coffee going south and a Wimpy, Pizza Hut Express and Costa Coffee going north. The same applies to the fuel available, which is BP southbound but Texaco northbound. Both sides offer a WH Smith newsagent, ATMs and toilets. My opinion is that the northbound building is the better of the two, with a more interesting building design and a better feeling of space. There is also a Premier Inn, a useful budget hotel, here.

The local Air Ambulance helicopter is based at Strensham, which adds a point of interest to an otherwise ordinary location. From time to time fund-raising activities are organised, and I hope that many people will support these in order to keep this vital service operating. All in all, this is a fairly good service area, and certainly better than the old, cramped Strensham of the 1980s. The only major drawback is that the northbound car park is not really large enough for holiday periods or summer weekends.

Rating: 7