Please note that from 1st July Tesla owners who get off Southbound will NOT be able to drive off the motorway and nip back onto the northbound SC as electric number recognition bollards are being fitted. I have alerted Tesla but the only way now to charge when going South is to do a 13 mile detour or go past and drive north before doing the opposite to go south again...hope this makes sense! We try to drive in an eco-friendly way but this simply adds mileage:-( The warden chap said he thought it was daft but the manager at the services obviously knows best:-(
How are they providing access to the hotel? If this is ANPR, then the hotel will probably have a means to defeat it for their customers - so it may just require that you register with the hotel while charging (though that's just speculation).
Hotel accessible northbound. It is if you come off south, leave services on minor road to cross motorway and enter northbound services to use SC. Can’t be done now.
But my point was that the same route is used to access the hotel - there are (or were) even “hotel->” signs on the southbound side telling you to use the service road. So whatever solution is put in for the hotel is potentially there for the SC.
I think @arg is right - based on this report it looks like access will continue to be granted for southbound drivers - new signs explicitly permit access for the hotel and Tesla charging. Slip roads for M6 Charnock Richard services set to close I expect access is being tightened up now the new Ramada hotel has opened.
Since reading your post I had a look on other forums, and one poster thought that the signs in the photo have been there a while (they might just be showing the ones on the northbound side) but _newer_ signs have been put up indicating that all public access to the service roads will be prevented (staff and emergency vehicles only). So now I'm not so sure that Tesla drivers will be able to access the supercharger from the southbound carriageway except by going down to the next junction (adding on 6 miles, plus a further 9 to get back to where you started). The access road was coned off yesterday prior to installation of the new ANPR-activated bollards. The discussion I read is that this is Highways Agency policy, so outside the remit of the services and the hotel. From a safety and security point of view I can understand why they may want to enforce this - and with the latest ANPR technology it is probably becoming easier to police.
An update which essentially just confirms @nowtleft 's news in post #1: I visited Charnock Richard (northbound) last week and can confirm the new barrier is in place (and apparently manned by a guard). Hotel staff also confirmed that the access road cannot be used by the public, including their guests, and this policy is expected to remain in place. I'd imagine Ramada will be more inconvenienced by this than Tesla: it would be a lot easier to add more chargers on the southbound side than building & staffing another hotel! Now that the newly refurbished/rebuild hotel is open it's worth noting that they have toilets and food available so if you don't feel like taking your chances crossing the service entry road (with blind bend hiding oncoming vehicles for added thrills) and trekking over to the main service area the hotel reception area is a handy alternative.
