Moto Service Station

The M23 service station in Pease Pottage is one of the smallest motorway service stations in the country. Originally owned by Welcome Break, then Granada, it is now run by Moto.

The service station functioned for years as the village’s corner shop until the Woodgate Community Shop opened for business in 2024. Unusually for a motorway service station, there is access for pedestrians, along a path to the south of the main building. Whether it is technically a motorway service station is debatable, since it is not actually on the motorway. The only road which accesses the service station directly is Brighton Road, the B2114.

Location and Directions

The Pease Pottage service station is at the southern end of the M23. A large roundabout links the M23, the A23, and a spur of the A264, as well as the local B2114 road into Pease Pottage village.

How to Find the Service Station

Unlike most service stations, the one at Pease Pottage is a short distance away from the motorway:

1. Leave the M23 at junction 11.
2. Get in the left-hand lane on the slip road.
3. At the top of the slip road, there is a set of traffic lights at the entrance to the large roundabout. You will see a prominent sign pointing left, toward the service station.
4. Take the first exit, which leads straight on.
5. Get in the right-hand lane.
6. A couple of hundred yards along, you will come to a roundabout.
7. Take the third exit (i.e. turn right) into the service station.

Entering and Leaving the Service Station

• If you want to go to the shops and the main car and lorry park, stay in the lane you are in, which curves around to the left.
• If you want to charge an electric vehicle, you should also stay in the lane you are in.
• If you want to go to the petrol station, take the junction which leads straight on.

To return to the M23 (it’s northbound only from Pease Pottage) or to follow the A23 northbound toward Crawley, take the first exit (i.e. turn left) on leaving the service station, and then get in the right-hand lane. To follow the A23 southbound toward Brighton, stay in the left-hand lane.

Moto Road Signs

Moto has its own system of signs within its service station grounds. Few of the signs follow the standard Highway Code system for warnings, prohibitions and positive instructions. In fact, many of Moto’s signs use the Highway Code’s visual clues in precisely the opposite way from their normal meanings.

Facilities

The motorway service station at Pease Pottage contains:

• several franchised eating establishments, which change from time to time (at the time of writing, June 2025, these were: Costa Coffee, Burger King, a cornish pasty kiosk, and a Greggs bakery);
• a Marks and Spencer Simply Food shop: well-stocked and only slightly pricier than Marks and Spencer’s typical town-centre branches;
• a W H Smith, which sells mainly sweets, magazines, sweets, newspapers, sweets, crisps, sweets, and Krispy Kreme doughnuts;
• toilets, including disabled access (via a RADAR key) and baby-changing facilities: small, but kept clean;
• showers;
• 2 cash machines (ATMs): one in the main building that takes a small commission, and one by the petrol station that doesn’t;
• slot machines, which usually take a large commission;
• vending machines for sweets and soft drinks;
• pay phones (hey, kids — ask your parents grandparents how to use these);
• a free wireless internet connection;
• a monitor screen showing traffic conditions on the M23 and M25;
• a small outdoor picnic area and children’s playground;
• some outside seating;
• an information stand just inside the main entrance;
• a branch of Autoglass windscreen repairs, to the left as you enter the car park;
• a separate petrol station offering unleaded petrol and diesel (but no longer LPG), open 24 hours a day;
• and a number of charging points for electric cars, also available 24 hours a day.

Electirc Car Charging

The service station in Pease Pottage contains two types of charging points:

• 12 general-purpose chargers, installed by Gridserve.
• 16 chargers for Swasticars Tesla vehicles. (At the time of writing, the map on Tesla’s website places the chargers on Brighton Road in Crawley, which is a couple of miles to the north of the Moto service staton on Brighton Road in Pease Pottage.)

The Gridserve chargers are situated along the right-hand perimeter of the car park as you drive in. The Tesla chargers are nearby, just out of sight in this image:

No Accommodation

Despite the impression given by one of the motorway signs, there is no accommodation at Pease Pottage services, although lorry drivers may sleep in their cabs.

Accessibility

There are some blue-badge parking bays at the Pease Pottage service station; see the Parking section below.

For general accessibility information, see https://www.accessable.co.uk/moto/m23-pease-pottage-services-moto (ironically, much of that information is inaccessible to security-conscious and privacy-conscious users who prefer not to allow JavaScript files to be placed on their devices).

Coach Drivers’ Discounts

Moto operate a discount scheme for coach drivers (essentially, free food). For details, see https://moto-way.com/coach/ or pop into the WH Smith and ask the person behind the till.

Opening Hours

By law, motorway service stations must provide food, fuel and toilets 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The Pease Pottage service station offers two options for the hungry overnight traveller:

• Costa Coffee (the branch inside the main building is open all the time; there’s also a kiosk just outside which is open from 08.00 to 16.00).
• W H Smith, whose selection of foodstuffs is limited.

Two other franchises are open late into the evening, seven days a week:

• The Marks and Spencer Simply Food shop at Pease Pottage is open:
  • from 07.00 to 22.00 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays,
  • and from 07.00 to 23.00 on Fridays and Sundays.
• Burger King is open from 07.00 to 23.00.

The branch of Greggs opens early:

• from 05.00 to 19.00 on Mondays to Fridays
• and from 06.00 to 19.00 on Saturdays and Sundays.

Parking at the Moto Service Station, Pease Pottage

Note that at busy times it can be difficult to find a parking space. If the car park is full, or if you want to have a long snooze and don’t feel like paying for a 24-hour parking ticket (see below for details), use this interactive map to check out other parking areas in Pease Pottage. Parish Lane, Finches Field and Old Brighton Road South are all used by canny, sleepy, and cost-conscious drivers.

Disabled Parking

There are a few disabled parking bays just to the right of the entrance to the main building.

HGV Parking

Moto offers a number of incentives to HGV drivers and operators. For details, see https://moto-way.com/my-moto/hgv/.

Cost of Parking

By law, parking is free at motorway service stations for the first two hours.

To stay longer than two hours, you will need to buy a ticket in advance that entitles you to 24 hours’ parking. The cost in June 2025 is:

• £15 for cars;
• £31 for caravans and motor homes;
• £31 for commercial vehicles (or £34 with a food voucher that entitles you to food up to the value of £10).

A number of signs in the car park contain information about the current conditions of parking at Pease Pottage services, and the penalties for non-compliance. See the nearby photograph, which was taken in June 2025..

If you want to read the small print before you arrive, a large-scale version (1.2 MB) of this image is available.

The Moto website also contains up-to-date information about parking: https://help.moto-way.com/knowledge/parking. If there is anything you are unsure about, please read that page and, if necessary, contact the Moto organisation. Their contact details can be found at https://moto-way.com/help-and-support/contact-us/.

Buying a Ticket

According to the signs in the car park, there are two ways to buy 24-hour parking tickets at the Pease Pottage service station:

• Go to the W H Smith, which is directly ahead of you as you enter the main building, and ask a member of staff. Cash and cards are accepted. This branch of W H Smith is open all day, every day.
• Alternatively, payment can be made online using the Just Park application, which is available for Android and Apple phones. If you use this method, you will need to quote the location identifier 625145. Payment doesn’t appear to be possible via the Just Park website, which contains lots of worthless stock photos of happy people but very little useful information.

You will need to buy your parking ticket before the end of your two-hour free stay.

HGV operators can set up an account with Moto to pay for visits to this and other Moto service stations; see https://help.moto-way.com/knowledge/am-i-able-to-open-an-account-for-parking-at-moto. Payment for 24-, 48- and 72-hour parking tickets can be made using a Snap account; the location code for Pease Pottage services is 13457.

Threats of Parking Fines

A ‘Parking Charge’ of £100 will be levied on drivers who stay longer than two hours without buying a ticket, or who break other rules such as parking in a bay reserved for electric vehicles without charging their car. At the time of writing, £100 is the maximum amount a private parking company is allowed to demand from motorists. Moto have sub-contracted the operaton of their car park to CP Plus, who are part of Group Nexus and members of the British Parking Association.

Pros and Cons of Parking Fines

In Moto’s favour, it should be pointed out that:

• Two hours is a not unreasonable amount of time to stretch your legs and have a bite to eat.
• There are several signs in the car park which inform drivers of the conditions of parking.
• Staying too long can prevent other drivers using the car park, since the available space is sometimes insufficient for the amount of traffic, a problem that has worsened since a number of parking bays were converted to electric-vehicle charging points. This problem cannot easily be resolved by expanding the site, which is surrounded by roads on every side. An effective form of deterrence appears to be necessary, and fines can be effective.

On the other hand, it should also be pointed out that:

• The two-hour window is a legal requirement, not the result of Moto’s generosity.
• Resting places near motorways are a public good, and ought to be provided as a public service rather than as a mechanism to transfer wealth to the owners of unaccountable private companies.
• Staying for longer than two hours is only a problem when the car park is busy. At other times, in particular overnight, it causes no inconvenience to other motorists and no loss of income to Moto.
• Fines are not always an appropriate or effective form of deterrence. There will be some motorists for whom a £100 ‘Parking Charge’ will be difficult to pay, and others for whom the amount is too trivial to worry about. Non-financial alternatives might be worth considering. For example, the act of ceremonially covering an offending vehicle with a bright yellow Tarpaulin of Shame would generate disapproving looks from the offender’s fellow motorists, and would encourage people to think about whether a particular act of over-staying is or isn’t justified.
• Any over-zealous enforcement of unnecessary rules would not make Moto look good, and might generate suspicion that their motives are more financial than practical.

Legal Status of Service Station Parking Fines

It should be understood that a ‘Parking Charge’, despite the official-looking use of capital letters, is not the same thing as a Penalty Charge Notice, which is a legally enforceable parking ticket issued by a democratically accountable local authority.

Although plenty of over-stayers do, no doubt, pay their official-looking ‘Parking Charges’, it is unclear whether Moto are entitled in law to demand any more than their 24-hour charge: £15 in the case of cars, versus a £100 ‘Parking Charge’. It could be argued that Moto might lose more than £15, and perhaps as much as £100, if an over-stayer prevented a car full of potential customers from parking, but this argument would only apply when no alternative, empty parking bays were available. If, as appears to be the case, Moto’s ‘Parking Charges’ are applied retrospectively and automatically, by logging the arrival and leaving times of each vehicle by ANPR, the company would find it difficult to argue that any particular instance of over-staying caused them a financial loss.

One thing to bear in mind is that these commercial invoices for parking infractions are issued to the registered keeper of the vehicle whose number plate is scanned on entry to the car park. The parking charges, however, are owed not by the registered keeper but by the driver of the vehicle. It is up to the owner of a car park to prove the identity of the driver of the vehicle, which the owner of the car park generally cannot do unless the registered keeper discloses the information.

Appealing Against a Parking ‘Fine’

If you receive an invoice from any private car-parking company, and you believe that the invoice has been issued unfairly, you may be able to appeal against it. The Citizens’ Advice website contains:

• Information about how to appeal against a parking company’s invoice: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/parking-tickets/appealing-[against-]a-parking-ticket/.
• A template of a letter you might want to use if you decide to appeal against a parking company’s invoice: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/parking-tickets/appealing-[against-]a-parking-ticket/challenge-private-parking-ticket/.

For more about what you could, or should, or should not do if you receive a ‘Parking Charge’, see:

• https://www.money.co.uk/guides/do-you-have-to-pay-private-parking-tickets
• https://thedebtadviceservice.co.uk/private-parking-fines/
• https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/private-parking-tickets/
• https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/topic/115086-parking-charge-notice/

Contacting the Service Station

None of the franchises at Pease Pottage service station are particularly easy to get hold of by phone or email. This may not be accidental.

Officially, the service station’s phone number is 01293 562852. We have heard stories of people who have tried ringing this number — whether to complain about a parking ‘fine’, to enquire about some lost property, or, in one case, to ask for CCTV or ANPR images to be supplied to the police after a theft — all without success. None of these stories were recent, though, so things may have improved.

If you need to contact the Pease Pottage service station and you find that no-one answers the phone, your best bet is to contact Moto’s head office on 01525 873933. Alternatively, the Moto website’s page for the Pease Pottage service station may contain the manager’s mobile number.

Insider Tip

For a wider selection of shops as well as toilets, adequate parking, and a petrol station, go to Broadfield in Crawley, just over one mile away. The petrol station in Broadfield, which is tucked away behind the shopping parade, is noticeably cheaper than the one at Pease Pottage services.

From the M23/A23 roundabout at junction 11, follow the signs for the A264 towards Horsham. At the first roundabout, take Tollgate Hill, the third exit (right) into Broadfield. Be aware that although Tollgate Hill looks like a 50- or 60-mph road, the limit is actually 30, and there are sometimes radar traps. At the first roundabout on this road, either

• go straight on (Coachman’s Drive), then go over one more roundabout, and the shops are signposted about fifty yards along to your left, on Pelham Place;
• or go left (Creasy’s Drive), then follow the road to a roundabout where you will see the shops on your right. Go straight on to reach the car park on Pelham Place.

More Information

There are no other service stations on the M23, but:

• The next nearest services are on the A23 at Handcross, about two miles south of Pease Pottage. These services, which are accessible only from the A23 southbound, contain: a petrol station, a small shop, toilets, and a car wash. There is a similar set-up about six miles further south on the A23 at Hickstead.
• The next nearest motorway service stations are at Clacket Lane on the M25 eastbound (i.e. anti-clockwise), about 22 miles away, and at Cobham on the M25 westbound (i.e. clockwise), about 38 miles away.
• There are several petrol stations in Crawley. Apart from the one in Broadfield, the easiest to get to is probably the one on the A23 just beyond Squires (formerly Cheals) Garden Centre, about 3 miles to the north of Pease Pottage. The petrol station is on the southbound carriageway, so you’ll need to go on to the next roundabout, then double back.

This website’s photograph gallery includes some pictures of the building of the Pease Pottage service station.

You can find out all about the very exciting history of the M23 at Chris Marshall’s informative and newly revamped https://www.roads.org.uk/ site.