Sharples Services, Astley Bridge - 22nd September 2019

Sharples Services is a new service station featuring a petrol station with a store, Gregg's bakery, and there is also a full Starbucks restaurant with Drive-Thru on site.

For the past 30+ years, the petrol station that was on the same location went through different brands but looked awful. It now looks brand new, clean and well looked after.

There were concerns by local residents that it would make adjoining streets messier, and parking a nightmare. Now I don't live on these streets but don't live too far away but I don't believe this to be the case. Of course, it's busy; and there were also concerns over it making traffic worse in the area, but again I don't see this to be the case - from my point of view anyway.

It really has made the area look 200 times better in my opinion. I also frequent the Gregg's Bakery and Starbucks so I'm not complaining. The only gripe I can see is that late at night, when it's dark, the forecourt is so bright and I guess there may be some light pollution into local houses? Not sure how bad this is though.