Plans for M4 J16 service station recommended for approval
Wiltshire Council's planning authority says it will create jobs during construction and once it is open
Plans for a new service station just off Junction 16 of the M4 look set to be approved.
Members of Wiltshire Council’s strategic planning committee will discuss the proposal for the service station capable of taking 240 cars, 63 lorries on land right next to the motorway junction put forward by operator Moto at their meeting on Tuesday, February 10.
Plans were first submitted in 2023, but a revised proposal was put in in 2024.
And the council’s planning officers’ report to councillors on the committee recommends they give Moto the go-ahead for the £30 million new service station.
The plans show the service station building would be in the middle of the diamond-shaped land between the motorway and the B4005 Wharf Road , on the very edge of south west Swindon, although the site is actually in Wiltshire Council’s patch.
Parking for Lorries will be on the northern edge of the site, next to the motorway, with private car parking directly west of the main building – with coach parking just inside the site. There will be separate filling facilities for cars and lorries sited between the two parking areas.
The application is for outline permission, with the real details of layout, design and appearance needing another planning application to get approval if consent is granted next week.
Despite 38 out of 42 people who wrote to the council about the plan objecting, planning officers have said they think the permission should be granted.
One reason is that, as well as the jobs created in building the station, there will be 150 people employed there once it begins operations.
The report says: “The proposal represents a significant economic investment in much-needed modern infrastructure to support the safer operation of the strategic road network, improving the quality of HGV driver welfare whilst contributing to meeting the UK net zero targets.
“The proposal would provide a net gain in biodiversity and a significant amount of job creation for local residents.
This is a scheme which includes high-quality design aspirations with high sustainability credentials raising the standard of design in this sector for necessary national infrastructure with no significant detrimental impact on local residents and occupiers.”
The report points out the scheme has support from Lydiard Tregoze Parish Council within whose area it sits, as well as support from Royal Wootton Bassett Town council and Wroughton, Chiseldon, and Haydon Wick Parish Councils, all in the borough of Swindon.
The strategic planning committee will meet at 10.30am on Tuesday, February 10 at County Hall in Trowbridge.
Members of the public are entitled to attend.