“Don't the artist's impressions look nice? Few cars and no lorries. Try looking down on a motorway servcie area from a nearby hill, and it will look completely different. It is an established fact that this development will have a massive impact on the view from Robinswood Hill, as it is impossible to screen all the cars, vans and lorries that will be parked there. There was a reason that Stroud District Council originally designated the area between Robinswood Hil and the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty as a Special Landscape Area. Such designations mean nothing if the Department for Transport or Highways Agency can come along and simply over-rule them by saying that there is a need for a core motorway service area here. I'm also worried that the colony of rare glow-worms on that side of Robinswood Hill will be badly affected by the increase in light pollution.”

“dontyaknow,
I understand your frustrations but it's not the "Powers that be" that build, fund or plan the retail developments that are taking place, this is all carried out by businesses.
These "powers that be" cannot force manufacturing industry, etc. to invest in the area and I struggle to comprehend why some seem to wish that the Retail developments such as the Quays and King's Quarter and even the Motorway services were not taking place.
Would the people that complain have preferred that these Businesses had invested in another City rather than Gloucester?”

“L_escalier - Yes, I have heard that argument before, and I cannot believe that is a valid argument. You come from Ross/Newent/Ledbury direction and are heading South down the M5, you would cut across to Gloucester and enter the M5 @ Junction 13. I have been driving from that direction for the last 15 years, and this is what I have always done. The only people who may often the M50 before going south on the M5 are those around Upton upon Severn, which is only a few thousand people.

jas36 - I wasn't intending to be snobbish. I work in low level retail, so earn no more than the people who will work there. My main gripe is that people get shot down on here for being negative about Gloucester (myself included), but all that is ever developed are supermarkets and retail jobs. I know the county has a lot of established aerospace and tech industry, but it seems that the powers that be are only interested in trying to create new jobs in the retail sector - and this is at a time when the consumer bubble has burst and the high street is changing. For Britain and thus Gloucestershire to actaully grow in the economies of the future we need to have less reliance on Shopping and more on manufacturing - actually making things the rest of the world may be interested in. Germany manage it, and have a strong enough economy to prop up the rest of the Euro. If Germany and the UK switched positions the Euro would collapse overnight. All we have is overpriced hosuing, shopping arcades and banks. We need some proper industry.

The services themselves actually look quite good - local produce and not run by one of the chains who just rip you off. I still don't think they were needed as badly as has been made out by the developers though - certainly not fr the reasons given.”

“The design has been designed to impact as low as possible

what a load of bull manure, acre and acre of green fields, and all the wild life that rely on it will now be lost forever, just because of greed from a few”

“It was always going to go ahead, too much money involved"..... lucky farmer eh!
.”

“Great news for the area!

Okay so most the jobs aren't high skilled, what's the problem? Not everyone wants or can do a high skilled job. If they were, then more than likely people from out side the area would be taking them. Also as least the jobs will be there for the long term and local food producers will benefit. The design has been designed to impact as low as possible (shame that can't be said for some other proposed buildings in the area)

I'd rather go in to a service station like this any day, rather than one that looks like any other and have food that has not done more miles than me to get to it's destination!”

“jas36, I don't think that the comments were snobbish. It's just that there are going to be very few "good" jobs at a motorway service area. There are already plenty of similar jobs in Gloucester, such as at the Quays, but people don't really want them - they want better paid or more interesting jobs. The reason why eastern Europeans are so prevalent in some sectors of employment is that they are prepared to take jobs that the locals don't want.”

“A very sad day for the enviroment, but look on the bright side, a few people will make a very lot of money”

“It's good to see that common sense has at last prevailed.
But it still amazes me to read some of the comments inferring that the type of "low skilled" jobs created will be effectively be worthless.
I wonder if the individuals who make these comments consider the people who will be employed in these jobs (and in Supermarkets, etc.) to be undesirable and worthless.
How disappointing it is to see that these snobbish attitudes still exist and the comments that boast that the scheme is not needed sound extremely selfish.
Do some people never think of others?”

“Don't ya know, the argument is that motorists driving along the M50 to the M5, and then turning south, don't see a 'core service station' for ages. It's a superfluous argument, because people who start their journey southwards from the western end of the M50 don't drive all the way to the M5 interchange, cutting across instead, but that's the kind of 'logic' being applied.”