The Saltash (MK2) branch was a former Little Chef restaurant located on the A38 at the Carkeel Roundabout near Saltash, Cornwall.
Address and Onsite Information[]
ADDRESS: Carkeel Roundabout, Saltash, Cornwall, PL12 6LF
ONSIDE FACILITIES: BP, Shop (forecourt), Costa Express (forecourt), Burger King, Subway, Travelodge (Book Room)
LITTLE CHEF NOW: Burger King, Subway
For more information, visit Motorway Services Online[1]
History[]
Saltash Services first opened in 1989 on the Carkeel Roundabout and was built by motorway services operator Granada as part of their plans to conquer the A-roads with scaled-down motorway-style sites. Others included Blyth (A1), Musselburgh (A1), Markfield (A50), Warminster (A36), Colsterworth (A1) and their older site at Monmouth (A40). Each site had a Granada Country Kitchen restaurant, shop, small arcade area, lodge (with the exception of Monmouth South) and fuel forecourt. In the early 1990s, Granada replaced the restaurant at all A-road sites, with the exception of Blyth, with AJ's Family Restaurants, who it had done a deal with. This gave them a direct rival to Forte's Little Chef brand for the first time.
When Granada acquired Little Chef and Travelodge in 1995, the AJ's restaurant and Granada Lodge hotel were changed to those brands. The on-site tourist information centre moved out in 1994, and Granada wanted to turn this into a drive thru Burger King; however, the decision was made to open the Burger King within the main amenity building instead. Granada then became Compass, who treated the motorway services and Little Chef as separate divisions. Confusingly, Saltash fell under Moto, except for the restaurant building which would be owned by Little Chef.
In 2006, a Coffee Tempo! takeaway unit opened at Saltash alongside Little Chef and Burger King.
In January 2012, then owners R Capital announced the closure of 67 unprofitable Little Chefs nationwide, with Saltash being one of the affected branches. The Little Chef and Coffee Tempo! closed in April 2012; however, Little Chef would continue to operate the Burger King on site. A Subway opened in the space of the former Little Chef restaurant in 2014.
An old Little Chef poster was still displayed on the exterior wall of the main amenity building here for quite a while, just to the left of the entrance, promoting ways to find Little Chef locations online. This was removed in 2018, but another Little Chef poster still survives to this day.
In 2017, the site was taken over by Euro Garages, who refurbished the main amenity building. In 2018, a Greggs was introduced to the site; however, this was very short lived and closed just a year later in 2019. A Sainsbury's on the Go shop was added to the building in 2019, although this too was short lived and closed in 2020.
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