Frankley services
Frankley services is a motorway service station on the M5 motorway between Junctions 3 and 4, near Birmingham, and taking its name from the nearby village of Frankley. It is owned by Moto.
History
Frankley was one of the first service stations of its kind when it was opened in 1966 by Granada Motorway Services to serve the new motorway which by 1977 gave the Midlands an unbroken motorway link with Devon.The first proposal was given in July 1962. The site at Frankley was first announced in May 1963. There would be no footbridge between both sides. All other service areas had a footbridge. Granada were given the contract in early September 1963.
The £612,000 contract for the site was awarded on 22 December 1964 to Higgs and Hill.
It was planned to be finished by the end of 1965. It was Granada's second motorway service station, after Toddington; its third would be Heston in 1968. There would be room for 640 people in the restaurants, and 300 parking spaces.
The motorway section opened on 16 November 1965, and it was hoped that the service area would open too, but it was not finished. It was planned that the petrol site would open in January 1966, and catering subsequently after that.
In July 1976, both Frankley and Strensham were so full, that cars parked on the hard shoulder, but the AA warned drivers not to do this.
In November 1984, it was named as the best Granada service area.
On 2 August 1984, it was visited by Transport Minister, Lynda Chalker.
The 2019 Motorway Services User Survey found that Frankley's southbound side was in the bottom five motorway services in the UK for customer satisfaction.