New applegreen filling station Belfast M1

[T Fearon]

Probably a judicial review or something.Meanwhile the rates on all filling stations in and around Belfast have gone sky high (jumping by a few hundred percent in some cases) as a result of the commercial rates revaluation,so maybe the developer himself has had second thoughts

[LCohen]

The lack of progress is baffling. Maybe there is some good reason for it. But you'd hate to be the developer. It will be a very expensive filling station before it opens.

The site acquisition was a mess. The site was bought off the local farmer. But they didn't buy enough land. They had to back for more. By that stage they had committed to the site and the farmer had them by the nads. The sorted now but at who knows what price

[Rufus T Firefly]

The lack of progress is baffling. Maybe there is some good reason for it. But you'd hate to be the developer. It will be a very expensive filling station before it opens.

The site acquisition was a mess. The site was bought off the local farmer. But they didn't buy enough land. They had to back for more. By that stage they had committed to the site and the farmer had them by the nads. The sorted now but at who knows what price

Thanks for that explanation. Like Orangeman, I've been mystified by the progress to date which seemed to involve simply moving large amounts of earth from one area of the site to the other. The Panama Canal was built quicker! 

[Tony Baloney]

The lack of progress is baffling. Maybe there is some good reason for it. But you'd hate to be the developer. It will be a very expensive filling station before it opens.

The site acquisition was a mess. The site was bought off the local farmer. But they didn't buy enough land. They had to back for more. By that stage they had committed to the site and the farmer had them by the nads. The sorted now but at who knows what price

Still looks like a fairly poky site.

[Maguire01]

The lack of progress is baffling. Maybe there is some good reason for it. But you'd hate to be the developer. It will be a very expensive filling station before it opens.

The site acquisition was a mess. The site was bought off the local farmer. But they didn't buy enough land. They had to back for more. By that stage they had committed to the site and the farmer had them by the nads. The sorted now but at who knows what price

That would explain why the hill at the back kept moving further and further back!

[Maguire01]

Another thing I could never understand, and it applies to the applegreen stations at Dundalk and Lusk as well - why build a station on either side of the road, rather than build one and a bridge across the motorway so that there's accessible from both carriages? I know bridges are expensive, but surely not more expensive than building and running a second filling station? The M1 also needs relief between J6 and J2 city-bound, and J3 and J6 country-bound - when there's an accident, there's no way off for several miles. Junctions 4 and 5 don't exist and a service station could have sorted this.

[Billys Boots]

The NRA own the first tranche of motorway service areas operated by Applegreen in Lusk, Castlebellingham and Enfield - it was their 'idea' to have stations on both sides of the motorway.  I understand that the 'idea' has failed spectacularly, from a commercial viewpoint - in each case there's a 'busy' side and, ahem, a 'not busy' side; there's tonnes of capacity even on the 'busy' side of the road.  So, now there's a second tranche of service stations up for auction - all of which are one service area with a bridge.  Incidentally, Applegreen also operate two non-NRA motorway service areas - Birdhill (outside Limerick) and Wicklow; both are one-siders, with a bridge. 

[armaghniac]

The new service stations in the south are in places less busy than the M1 and M4, so the bridge makes more sense there.

[Muzz]

The actual reason for the delay is due to a badger set being found.  And as per usual these days when things like these are found you cant do anything until they decide to move out themselves.  Something about mating season or something.

[Keyser soze]

The actual reason for the delay is due to a badger set being found.  And as per usual these days when things like these are found you cant do anything until they decide to move out themselves.  Something about mating season or something.

Would gassing them or shooting them not be quicker?

[Muzz]

I believe that was suggested but I believe that there's a law that the environmenalists can now call on to protect the wee bollocks.

[brokencrossbar1]

The actual reason for the delay is due to a badger set being found.  And as per usual these days when things like these are found you cant do anything until they decide to move out themselves.  Something about mating season or something.

Would gassing them or shooting them not be quicker?

I often wonder could the site managers not just turn a blind eye and fill the holes in with a fill of cement, like who would really know?

[AZOffaly]

The badgers would have  a fair idea

[brokencrossbar1]

The badgers would have  a fair idea

They'd be alright at the heel of the hunt!!

[armaghniac]

You'd have people badgering Stephen Nolan about it.