Scratchwood / London Gateway emergency road

[mwacuk]

how about if you work at a service area but dont have a vehical that is mway legal, surely they could use the access to THEIR workplace?

[Secret Squirrel]

The normal rules for the MSA back doors is that staff, emergency services and authorised Highways Agency maintenance vehicles can use them. They will be issued with the appropriate method to get through the barriers.
Delivery vehicles are normally instructed to access from the motorway only as the majority of these rear access points are onto U/C country roads.

[Paul]

Delivery vehicles are normally instructed to access from the motorway only as the majority of these rear access points are onto U/C country roads.

It is entirely appropriate that deliveries should be made by motorway in any case since one of the major gains is diverting heavy freight traffic off surface roads!

[A21Will]

Just thinking about different police forces attitudes to MSA accesses. Clearly Kent Police don't give damn, but they only have one MSA where it is an issue. Maidstone has no access at all except from M20 J8 which is all motorway as the spur from the A20 is part of the Motorway. Therefore, it would be impossible for someone riding a moped to work at this services.....

Clacket Lane is a few hundred yards into Surrey, however, I have used this to escape from the M25 after having been stuck between there and J5 for 2 hours. I turned off to the services for a bit of a change, and noticed a little stream of people leaving through the staff access onto Clacket lane. I joined them, and a bit of a jobsworth looking character was holding the barrier open reluctantly for us. I imagined that he realised his life at the hands of dozens of people who had sat for hours in a solid jam was more important than his job!

Just after J5 (going clockwise) on the M25 there is an access through double gates where Brasted Station was when this section was a railway. this usually isn't locked, though sadly it was on the occasion when I escaped through Clacket Lane. Some Sat Navs apparently tell you to leave the M25 at this emergency access.

[Secret Squirrel]

I've met people who have had Fixed penalties for using Brastead gates...

[Roadtripper_Ian]

Anyone know about Leicester Forest East? There's a lodge on both sides so normally lodge traffic is fine to get out.

I ask because some git has arranged a meeting at the Premier Lodge at the A47 end of LFE's access road......

[Lewis]

Didnt they alter Rosersthorpe services on the M1 so it became J15a? It does look like that junction was built around the services.

[Johnathan404]

Didnt they alter Rosersthorpe services on the M1 so it became J15a? It does look like that junction was built around the services.

Yes, the services came first.

[ForestChav]

Only because people "escaped" onto the A43.

[vinnielo]

Google Earth has kindly shown me where the checkpoint is (where the road markings say "STOP"), and where the road ends up. Who needs a car now?! More importantly, I can discover where the road leads without having to get fined/shot at!

[ManomayLR]

The thing is it would make my journey a hell of a lot easier than facing the A1. Would you recommend trying or would I just be asking for trouble?

[hoagy_ytfc]

What's the penalty if caught?


For what it's worth, I used the "secret" exit from Hilton Park northbound on Friday - but then in this case it is actually a signed route to the southbound services if you're unfortunate enough to need the Travelodge there.

[Al__S]

it's amazing how often drivers see a disabled/broken rising bollard/gate/other physical control with clear restriction signs next to it and assume that if the way isn't blocked the restriction doesn't apply

[KeithW]

What's the penalty if caught?


For what it's worth, I used the "secret" exit from Hilton Park northbound on Friday - but then in this case it is actually a signed route to the southbound services if you're unfortunate enough to need the Travelodge there.

A number of service areas have such a rear access from lodges that the DfT agreed could be used by hotel guests. I believe Scratchwood is one of them. Most of them are in theory equipped with ANPR but I suspect many are not functional or monitored. That would require checking if the number plates were on vehicles of keepers who were registered with the hotel. The original padlocked gates seem not to have been used for many years. In fact the Google SV car seems to have down most of it. You would probably get away with it but its hardly a viable way to get to the A1. There are three routes you can take from the MSA rear entrance on Ellesmere Avenue.

To explain the background let me divulge that I lived in Edgware for 10 years and became very familiar with the area. The Scratchwood rear exit emerges at Apex Corner Mill Hill. That access road essentially goes under the M1 through the Apex scrap yard and leaves you in a residential street in the triangle of land bounded by the M1 to the west, the A1 to the east and the golf course to the north.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.62585 ... authuser=0

There is one rather dodgy junction at Pine Road to the south that will dump you onto Apex Corner

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.62159 ... authuser=0

The two other options both leave you exiting flat junctions on Barnet Way (A1) heading north. Personally I would only use any of them in extremis.

If I was heading south on the M1 I would to leave it at J5 and take the A41 Edgware Way to Apex Corner. Were I on the A1 heading north at Apex Corner and wanted to get on to the M1 northbound I would take the A41 Edgware Way up to J5.

[ManomayLR]

But I live near the A1 stretch at Stirling Corner and often need to get down to the A406. Is it worth attempting to use the service road or should I stick with the A1 and A41 with all its signals etc.?

[KeithW]

But I live near the A1 stretch at Stirling Corner and often need to get down to the A406. Is it worth attempting to use the service road or should I stick with the A1 and A41 with all its signals etc.?

To get to the M1 at Scratchwood from Stirling Corner this is the route you would have to take.

A1 S to Apex Corner
Do a circuit of Apex Corner and head N up Barnet Way and take a left at the Shell Garage onto Ellesmere Ave and to the end of it,
Go through the exit road which passes through the Apex Scrap yard and up to Scratchwood hoping there is nothing blocking it.

[nick_dunn]

A number of service areas have such a rear access from lodges that the DfT agreed could be used by hotel guests. I believe Scratchwood is one of them. Most of them are in theory equipped with ANPR but I suspect many are not functional or monitored. That would require checking if the number plates were on vehicles of keepers who were registered with the hotel.

I suspect you're right about that. Toddington has an access road which the Travelodge guests are allowed to use. However I used taxis to and from there recently which also used the access road and I doubt every taxi in the area would have its reg. in the database.

[WHBM]

Some seem more guarded than others - the exits just north of Preston on the m6 are a definite no-no - whereas the M11 at Chigwell, the police don't seem to care about you using the bridge to do a u-turn on the motorway to travel north again....

I believe the attitude at Chigwell changed substantially a few years ago after someone got confused in the dark and joined a carriageway in the wrong direction, leading to a fatal collision.

If I am not mistaken Chigwell is a major Met Police point, although actually in Essex.

[c2R]

Some seem more guarded than others - the exits just north of Preston on the m6 are a definite no-no - whereas the M11 at Chigwell, the police don't seem to care about you using the bridge to do a u-turn on the motorway to travel north again....

I believe the attitude at Chigwell changed substantially a few years ago after someone got confused in the dark and joined a carriageway in the wrong direction, leading to a fatal collision.

If I am not mistaken Chigwell is a major Met Police point, although actually in Essex.

Yeah, since I posted this 14 years ago, there's been a lot more development at the site, with the Olympic Games coming and going and now it being used for police operations.

[KeithW]

A number of service areas have such a rear access from lodges that the DfT agreed could be used by hotel guests. I believe Scratchwood is one of them. Most of them are in theory equipped with ANPR but I suspect many are not functional or monitored. That would require checking if the number plates were on vehicles of keepers who were registered with the hotel.

I suspect you're right about that. Toddington has an access road which the Travelodge guests are allowed to use. However I used taxis to and from there recently which also used the access road and I doubt every taxi in the area would have its reg. in the database.

Actually I may be wrong, I have been wondering why the name of the Apex Scrap Yard was vaguely familiar and have just remembered, A fire there closed the M1 for 3 days in 2011.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16425491