Motorway service area Motorway service area Motorway service areas in the United Kingdom, also known as 'service stations' or 'services', are places where drivers can leave a motorway to refuel/recharge, rest, eat and drink, shop or stay in an on-site overnight hotel. The vast majority of motorway services in the UK are owned by one of three companies: Moto, Welcome Break and Roadchef. Smaller operators include Extra, Westmorland and EuroGarages. The first service area in the UK was at Watford Gap on the M1, which opened with the motorway on 2 November 1959. As more service stations opened, the number of operating companies
Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service school at Pirehill near the town of Stone in mid-Staffordshire. Their fire control centre used to be at Pirehill, but was closed after its amalgamation with fire control of the West Midlands Fire Service in March 2014. So now both brigades operate under a joint control centre situated in Birmingham. The county's maintenance workshops are located at Hanley fire station in central Stoke-on-Trent. Of the thirty-three strategically located fire stations, only Stafford, Tamworth Belgrave and Sandyford operate on a wholetime 24-hour crewing basis. Longton, Hanley, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Cannock and Burton-upon-Trent operate as wholetime/retained stations, which means, along with a 24-hour station-based