Construction is underway on Tatton Services, the fourth motorway service area (MSA) for Westmorland Group, which is on track to open in spring 2028.
The amenities, near Manchester Airport, on the M56 between junctions 7 and 8, will be a progression of the operator’s other MSAs at Tebay, Douglas in Scotland and Gloucester, the most recent addition opened in July 2015.
So says Sarah Dunning, chair of the family business. “It will be an evolution of our motorway service areas, but will be on a bigger scale, and will serve both sides of the motorway,” she says.
Planning permission has been given for a 100-room hotel, farm shop, petrol station and charging for 96 electric vehicles on the greenbelt land.
“Things have moved on since Gloucester,” Dunning told Forecourt Trader last week. “EV will be a significant part of the offer, we will have a drive-thru, and there will be a main amenity building with a big kitchen garden next to it for people to sit outside.”
The outlet, which will be the only MSA in Westmorland’s network close to an urban area and so likely to attract a high level of commuter traffic, will follow the firm’s model of locally sourced food sold from a farm shop-style format and food hall “serving traffic on all sort of missions”, says Dunning.
And the site, a former agricultural business, will retain its personality, she adds. “It is on the site of an old farmstead, so we will really be keeping the character of that, and the new buildings will reflect that it has always been a working farm.”
