I hate British motorway services. I haven't driven enough in other counties to know if this is something peculiar to this country, but they are truly dreadful. At this time of year, with families driving off for a summer holiday, they pretty much hold them to ransom.
You either pack a picnic (which isn't a bad idea, there's nothing finer than a poached chicken torn apart and put into sandwiches with lots of mayonnaise – or the humble and undervalued scotch egg) or put up with hugely expensive, very bad quality, chemical laden junk.
It's not entirely the vendors' faults though. They have to pay a huge sum to get a franchise, so that the only way they can make money is charge a lot for something cheap.
There must another way, and maybe there is. There are little villages and towns just off every motorways all over the country with perfectly brilliant little cafes and the like. For the sake of the 2 minutes to drive an extra half mile you could be having tea made in the pot and some homemade soup with a crusty roll, a lovingly hand made sandwich or, best of all, a full english breakfast without taking out a mortgage. Of course, the problem is finding them….
All it would take would someone to organise a network of cafe and food lovers to start sharing where these places are, rate them etc, then create something to work with your smart phone's GPS so you could find them. In a couple of years, new cars will be connected to the web and have all sorts of apps and stuff, like this or this.
Then you would only need to stop at a service station for petrol, sweets or a magazine. If you wanted good food, you could get it.
NORTHERN PLANNER 
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