Severn View services
Severn View services, formerly Aust services is a motorway service station on the M48 motorway near the village of Aust, northwest of Bristol, in South West England. It is owned by Moto.
History
Old building
The service was constructed by Higgs and Hill Ltd as part of the M4 motorway contract between Aust and Almondsbury. The original services building was built near the edge of the cliff, allowing visitors to see the Severn Bridge and the Severn Estuary.The services went into operation the day after the bridge and motorway were opened on 8 September 1966, with Elizabeth II visiting. The services were originally run by Top Rank Motorport, a subsidiary of The Rank Organisation. The site was 25 acres and had a 350 seat restaurant, a self service cafeteria for 450 people, a transport cafe and parking for 750 cars and lorries. A 1978 government report stated that this service station had the largest public cafeteria in the United Kingdom.
When the road was diverted over the Second Severn Crossing it was expected that these services would close. The original building was closed and sold, and operations moved to an adjacent site.
New building
It has been owned by Moto Hospitality since the company was founded in 2001, making it one of the first motorway services to be operated by Moto. Burger King is the only surviving brand that has been operating there since 2001.Despite Moto's take over, the mini amusement arcade in the services, Gscape, remained there from the days when Granada owned the service station despite being Granada branded, as Granada created the 'Gscape' arcades to appear exclusively within their services, with the "G" in the logo being the same G that Granada had in their logo. The 'Gscape' branding was removed in the 2010s.
A sign located beside the A403 road some distance before approaching the roundabout that serves the service station has generated some interest. The sign, depicting a pictograph symbol of a bed, is supposed to identify that the service station has a hotel, although the sign appears some distance outside the service station and gives no direction to get there. It was erected when Granada bought the service station, and the same sign is normally seen in other service stations once owned by Granada, inside the service station's entrance.
The 2019 Motorway Services User Survey found that Severn View had the lowest level of customer satisfaction of motorway services in the UK.