A new service station has opened up just off the M6 (J31) at Preston which is hoping to serve both drivers and wildlife in a unique experiment.
The Brockholes service station opened at the beginning of the Easter weekend and uniquely combines the usual facilities you’d find at a traditional motorway services with a new floating visitors centre and wildlife reserve.
Owned by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, the £10 million project was originally envisioned to be another traditional wildlife reserve, but the location close to the M6 prompted an idea to extend the project to bring in visitors passing through the area from nearby Preston and the motorway.
Because the area is a flood plain, the trust needed to build the facilities in a way which would prevent buildings flooding, so they took the idea of floating buildings which are common on South Asia and Southern Iraq which also has the least impact on the wildlife of the reserve. Now the 400 tonne concrete pontoons on which the buildings are placed can raise by a maximum of 4 metres.
The placement of what is essentially a new motorway services might also have other benefits as it mirrors in many ways Tebay Services near J38 and Killington Services close to J37 (southbound only).
The wildlife reserve is still being created with reed-beds going in soon and various other enhancements, but if you’re travelling up or down the M6 and want to get away from the usual traffic noise of a motorway services, this might well be the perfect answer.
There’s more information on the Brockholes web site.
The video below shows how the project came together in March 2011:
The service station is now fully completed.
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Visitor attractions near Preston
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