RG30

Southcote, Norcot and the services at junction 11

West Reading and a motorway service area. RG30 gives us local residential work and long-distance breakdowns in the same postcode.

At the services the pattern never changes: someone has driven on a soft tyre at motorway speed, the sidewall has overheated, and the tyre is finished whatever it looks like from the outside. We will tell you that before we set off rather than at the roadside. Southcote and Norcot are residential with kerbside parking on both sides and narrow entrances into the closes. Prospect Park has a long entrance road and event parking on grass, which is soft after rain and hides the drainage channels.

This one is a proper run for us. You get a yes or no before we move, not a van that quietly never arrives.