Plans for a new luxury service station on the M56 near Manchester are set to be approved at a planning meeting next week.
It’s no exaggeration to say Tatton Services would be so much more than your average service station.
Coming from the Westmoreland Family and the Tatton Estate, the former of which is the company behind the stunning Tebay Services, and its equally-as-stunning sister sites down near Gloucester and up near Lanark in Scotland, Tatton Services would pop up on a stretch of the M56 just miles from Manchester, making it the ideal stop-off for us lot when we’re heading on long journeys.
If you’re not familiar with Tebay, it’s also known as the little slice of motorway services heaven just off the M6 in Cumbria, and it just so happens to have been named the best service station in the country in a new survey.
Tebay has gained somewhat of a cult following, and is known and loved for its lakeside setting and rural surroundings, stunning spacious interior with vaulted ceilings, the wealth of cafes and restaurants serving up dishes home-cooked on site, and its farm shop selling all sorts of local produce.
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Plans for a new luxury service station on M56 near Manchester set to be approved / Credit: Tatton Services
So if Tatton Services even comes remotely close to resembling this – and it certainly sounds like it would do – then we’re in for a real treat.
The proposed Tatton Services could be built near junctions seven and eight of the M56, which is not far from Altrincham and Manchester Airport.
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Plans have been submitted to Cheshire East Council by the Westmoreland Family and Tatton Estate as part of the 80/20 partnership, and if approved, the site would feature a farm shop, a kitchen, a 100-bed hotel, a petrol station and several electric vehicle charging points, and so much more, as well as creating 558 jobs during its expected two-year construction, and eventually employing 223 staff.
The plans have been recommended for approval by Cheshire East Council before it goes to its planning committee next week, despite their being 150 letters of objection submitted.
Tatton Services is the latest venture from Tebay owners, the Westmoreland Family / Credit: Tatton Services
The letters of objection – which crucially included one from Trafford Council – were submitted on the basis that the service station would be built on green belt land, and would therefore be inappropriate for the area.
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But about 30 letters of support were received from local residents, business organisations, and other companies to outweigh this.
When recommending the scheme for approval, planning officers at Cheshire East Council said, although it would be an inappropriate development in the green belt, the harm was “clearly outweighed by the need for the proposal”.
They cited highways safety benefits, economic benefits, and opportunities for employment and local businesses as positives.
Planning officers did, however, note that due to the scale and nature of the Tatton Services proposal, the plans would need to be referred to the Secretary of State.
The plans will be discussed by Cheshire East Council’s strategic planning board on 25 October.
Featured Image – Tatton Services
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Coronation Street and Emmerdale set for special crossover episode
Danny Jones
Two of Britain’s most legendary TV shows are set to collide as Coronation Street and Emmerdale prepare for an unforgettable crossover.
It’s the sort of thing we’ve imagined plenty of times before, but if we’re being honest, we never actually thought it would come to fruition.
For the first time ever, the iconic Northern soaps will be teaming up to release a special crossover episode early next year.
‘Coronationdale’? ‘Emmerdale Street’? All we know is we’re excited.
Announced on Tuesday, 13 May, ITV confirmed that work on the first-ever Coronation Street and Emmerdale collaboration is now underway.
The flagship serial franchises both have huge nationwide followings in their own right, attracting more than 8 million viewers every week.
Moreover, with both Manc’s much-loved Corrie and its Yorkshire counterpart having faced financial struggles in recent months, this announcement couldn’t have come at a better time.
Writing in an official joint press release, the two shows revealed they will “join forces in an unprecedented, one-off special episode to launch the broadcaster’s new power hour of soap, which begins on ITV1 and STV in January 2026.”
The ‘power hour’ is part of the channel’s plans to readjust its approach to its regular programming laid out earlier this year, with this serving as an eye-catching way to promote the new schedule.
Put it this way, provided they keep the crossovers up North and avoid you know where, this is the kind of thing we can get behind…
Corrie characters reacting to the mere thought of heading to London 🤝 Manc parents whenever one of their kids mentions leaving 0161. 😂
The statement goes on to read: “The distinctive worlds of Emmerdale and Coronation Street will merge for one night only in a ‘mash-up’ of our two favourite communities.”
ITV believe they have come up with an “ingenious way of linking the two universes” before having them return to Greater Manchester and the Dales, respectively.
The episode will be a self-contained one-off special, but one that sees them canonically grounded in the same entertainment world forever and, you never know, if the idea is a hit then it could be the first of many to come.
As if that wasn’t enough, to make the prospect even more interesting, the producers are inviting members of the audience to choose which two characters they would like to meet and interact with in the scene – keep your eyes peeled on their social media for more information.
Coming in January 2026 (specific release date yet to be confirmed), this is not one you want to miss.
We’re also glad to see the pair of long-standing soaps and institutions of British telly have got off to a strong start this year, raking in 124 million streams on ITVX with each episode now available on the streaming platform ahead of each night’s episode.
You can expect a big viewer spike when this one goes out, that’s for sure.
The reason behind the ‘mini Manc tornado’ that blew through Ancoats this month
Danny Jones
If you saw footage of a ‘mini tornado’ ripping through Manchester online this past weekend, no, your eyes weren’t deceiving you: it did happen and, turns out, it’s a pretty strange and rare phenomenon– at least in this part of the world.
They say 0161 has everything but a beach, and now we seemingly have little twisters of our own, they might just have a point.
In all seriousness, footage went viral on social media, being met with equal surprise and alarm as most were understandably confused at how this could even happen in the UK, given our climate isn’t typically used to these kinds of weather events.
For those of you who haven’t seen it already, here’s what it looked like…
Did you see the mini Manc tornado that passed through Ancoats last weekend? 🌪️
We’ll admit that when first heard a so-called tornado had been spotted in Manchester, we pictured a little spiral of leaves and crisps packets in a supermarket car park, but as you can see, it really was much more significant than that.
Reported as having towered as high as 30 metres along Great Ancoats Street, various people saw the startling city centre sight and quickly began querying what the hell they were seeing online.
Despite many dubbing it a tornado, we can confirm it was something slightly different.
What caused the ‘Manchester tornado’?
What you’re looking at is what is colloquially known as a ‘dust devil’; put simply, these are small, rotating columns of air that pick up dust and debris from the ground and obviously resemble a tornado at times, especially when they manage to become as wide and tall as this one did.
As explained by the Met Office, “A dust devil forms due to irregularities caused by temperature contrasts on different surfaces, which then causes rotation of the air and, when there’s dust and debris, you can get these columns of air.”
Here’s another angle:
WATCH: MASSIVE Dust Devil in Manchester, England yesterday!#tornado
We don’t need to tell you that it’s been pretty warm of late (bloody gorgeous, in fact) and, as a result, the chances of creating a proper dust devil are much greater than usual.
The Met Office went on to add: “Unlike tornadoes, dust devils grow upwards from the ground, rather than down from clouds. In the stronger dust devils, a cumulus cloud can be seen at the top of the rising column of warm air.
“They only last a few minutes because cool air is sucked into the base of the rising vortex, cooling the ground and cutting off its heat supply.”
It’s not the only strange meteorological event seen around Greater Manchester recently, either. From the likes of ‘supercell thunderstorm’ and the eerily silent ‘heat lightning’ in late 2023, to the UFO-like swirl seen across various parts of the globe earlier this year.
Emily Sergeant -
19th October 2023 
