Hopwood Park services

Hopwood Park services is a motorway service station in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England situated off Junction 2 of the M42 motorway on the A441 road to Redditch south of Birmingham. It opened in August 1999. Services include a Shell Petrol Station, Waitrose, Starbucks Coffee, WHSmith, and KFC.

Hopwood Park Services
The modern buildings
Hopwood Park services (Worcestershire)
Information
CountyWorcestershire
RoadM42, A441
Coordinates:52.37214°N 1.947676°W / 52.37214; -1.947676
OperatorWelcome Break
Date opened1999
WebsiteWelcome Break

This motorway service area is operated by Welcome Break.

History

Planning permission for the site was granted by Bromsgrove District Council in October 1998,[1] work started two months later in December 1998, costing £40 million.[2] When it was opened, it became the first service area in the country to include its own wildlife reserve.[1]

Reviews and criticisms

The independent Motorway Services Online has Hopwood Park down as the most popular service station, with visitors giving it an average rating of five stars (as of 2007).[3]

The Holiday Which? magazine praised Hopwood Park for having a good variety of food, a smart cafe and staff who are helpful.[4]

Hopwood Park uses Parking Eye to monitor time spent in their car park. If you visit this service area twice in a day the system only sees you enter and leave once, and then issues a fine in excess of £100.

Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS)

Hopwood Park was the site of one of the first fully integrated Sustainable Drainage Schemes (Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems) in the United Kingdom. Designed by Robert Bray Associates in conjunction with Baxter Glayster Consulting Ltd., the SuDS system comprises a chain of basins, swales, filter strips, and ponds. The system collects surface water from roofs and parking areas and is released at a controlled rate into the local watercourse where is naturally treated and filter via the vegetation through the various catchment ponds.[5]

References
  1. "Wildlife welcome at M-way stop". Birmingham Evening Mail. 22 October 1998. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 19 June 2009.
  2. "Work on service station starts". Birmingham Evening Mail. 29 December 1998. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 19 June 2009.
  3. Hopwood, Motorway Services Online, UK. Retrieved 14 January 2009.
  4. Motorway service stations rated, BBC News, 7 March 2006. Retrieved 16 December 2009.
  5. SuDS case studies, Hopwood Motorway Service Area, CIRIA, Retrieved 20 July 2012.
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