This Supercharger can be difficult from the north! Heading south the Navi took me off the M6 and came up with a crosscountry route that eventually led to an intercom controlled barrier which was owned by the hotel. The hotel then refused to drop the barrier for me! The woman controlling it said she could only drop the barrier for hotel customers or emergency services! I could see the superchargers...
They said I should go back to the motorway and go south to the next exit, then drive north and enter via the northbound services! As it turned out somebody was leaving and had the barrier drop code so I dashed in anyway while the route was clear!
While charging I chatted with a guy waiting and he said usually the hotel will drop the barrier on request.
And, of course when I did get charged I had to go north to the next exit before resuming my track south.
However, when you do finally gain access there are plenty of free chargers! Hopefully they'll get some chargers soon on the southbound side.
After the event I see there is Mill Lane going over the M6 and connecting the North and Southbound services but the Navi didn't choose that. Anyone know why?
The barrier is there to enforce Highways Agency rules, i.e. access only for permitted vehicles. As per discussion previously in this thread, since the rules were properly enforced in 2018 hotel customers are permitted but Tesla drivers wanting to visit the Supercharger from the southbound carriageway are not. Evidently the hotel got permission but Tesla has either been refused or not tried applying. From an enforcement point of view this makes sense as hotel users can be checked against the reservation list, but Tesla drivers could just be looking for a shortcut (there wouldn't be many but still, there's no way to check).
The issue with this location is that the services used to be an unofficial motorway junction from the local road network. When I first used Charnock Richard (before the barrier was upgraded and access properly enforced) I watched a steady stream of vehicles drive though the access road, and it wasn't even a particularly busy time of day. I sympathise with the hotel staff who presumably have to police the barrier intercom and refuse drivers access, I can imagine not all drivers will be polite and understanding.
As things stand it therefore makes sense that the Nav doesn't include access via Mill Lane for southbound trips. I did read of a driver who said they'd been routed there and if the Nav does do this it should be reported as a bug.
Fingers crossed Tesla can get some southbound chargers which would be the best solution. In the meantime perhaps the signage should be improved to warn drivers that Supercharger access is not permitted via Mill Lane.
Thanks for photo!
