Filling Station surfacing - who's responsibility?

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SteveA30
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Filling Station surfacing - who's responsibility?

Post by SteveA30 »

Many of you may have noticed that the tarmac or concrete at garages is sometimes very rough. Large ridges or furrows in tarmac and bad joints. Crumbling surfaces. A30 Sourton was disintegrating very badly. The petrol station area has now been resurfaced very nicely but, the adjacent Travelodge and Subway/Greggs/BK hasn't been touched and is still terrible.

Often the entrance off a road is bad along the pavement area. Are LA/NHHEHA or whatever they are called this week responsible for that strip only and not the rest of the garage/cafe and parking areas?
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JammyDodge
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Re: Filling Station surfacing - who's responsibility?

Post by JammyDodge »

The surface would be the responsibility of the landowner. Whether the petrol station and BK are separate I don't know, but if the surfaces are different then it is probable.
I would also assume that the petrol station has a right of way through the BK car park, if it goes from good to bad
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WHBM
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Re: Filling Station surfacing - who's responsibility?

Post by WHBM »

A whole string of these down the A30/303 were built in the 1980s for the onetime Happy Eater business by contractor Dunnings of Weyhill. They will be about 35-40 years old now, and have gone through all sorts of ownership changes and rebrandings. Possibly the surface was from the original construction.

Such stations are commonly not under the ownership of the oil company whose branding they bear, but are independently owned. Like most franchise branding, the oil company will have certain standards, including the surfacing, and they also provide soft loans to the owner to finance periodic refurbishments. The often also have framework contracts with contractors to do the work without needing to negotiate each individual one. The chances are the site is still under single ownership, it's unlikely that it's been divided up and half sold off.

This sort of franchised station worked well with owner/operators, who would manage it as their own and strive to keep it all good. Less so in recent times when groups of stations, say a dozen, have come under ownership of some grey market company registered in guernsey or wherever, whose only interest is the financial return, put the cheapest manager they can find in, and concentrate wholly on return on investment and how much they can draw out of the station. This accounts for stations where the oil company has specified pay-at-pump units being installed, but you find they are switched off, because the owner has put tough targets on the manager for turnover in the shop - doing this enforces everyone to go to the shop.
SteveA30
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Re: Filling Station surfacing - who's responsibility?

Post by SteveA30 »

Interesting. I'm assuming the Weyhill services were by Dunning of...Weyhill. They were disused for about 10-15 years but are now a very good location. I figured it was down to ownership issues. No-one wants to pay for any resurfacing.
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WHBM
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Re: Filling Station surfacing - who's responsibility?

Post by WHBM »

Dunnings were a customer of mine at the time. Lost about a thousand pounds uncollected from them when they went bust. Eventually got a cheque from their receivers a couple of years later for something like £6.71, which was put on the office notice board alongside the original invoices. A long established, family-owned contractor, having built many an office for developers they unwisely got into a speculative office development themselves at Southampton docks which got tied up with issues with access and didn't sell/lease until they went under. The multiple Happy Eater contract was a particularly good one for them.

Dunnings premises at Weyhill were on the historic fairgrounds in the village which are featured in the opening chapter of Thomas Hardy's "The Mayor of Casterbridge" novel, set in Victorian times, if you have ever read it. Having done it for GCSE at school it was novel to be actually visiting there.
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