A NEW book reveals how London service stations are being used as places for blind dates and sexual encounters.

Dr Roger Green has written the book Destination Nowhere: A South Mimms Motorway Service Station Diary after 500 visits to the M25 Welcome Break site over an 18-month period.

According to Dr Green, of Sky Peals Road, Woodford Green, service stations are places where people meet up to catch up with friends, and even for first dates.

Dr Green, who works at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield as a social researcher, wrote the book after pulling into the South Mimms service station on his way to work one morning three-and-a-half years ago.

What he saw over the next 18 months was revealing.

He said: "One of my biggest memories is of men on their mobile phones in the toilet. It is almost as if they think no-one is in the toilet with them, you can hear everything they are saying but still they carry on talking.

"Many people go there to get lost, just to be in their own world, while others use it as a local place to visit. It was surprising, the number of people who were regulars there, but I suppose I was too. I became familiar with many people.

"There were also many stories from the motel manager, one of a woman's body being found some years ago after she committed suicide and many telling of the sexual objects his staff would find after clearing out the rooms."

Far from being merely places where people pull in to use the toilet and grab a cup of coffee, service stations are revealed to be places of intrigue.

Dr Green, 57, said: "The whole place is a reflection of 21st century Britain. It seems as though these places are a reflection of 20-odd years of Thatcherism where communities no longer exist so people have to go elsewhere to meet people.

"The ironic thing is communities are formed in these places as well. People know each other, they go to these places to talk to people and even to have blind dates."

One of Dr Green's fondest memories is from the last World Cup and England vs Nigeria. He recalled: "On that day, the service station was just like the terraces at West Ham.

"Wherever they were going people had pulled in for a couple of hours to watch the match. It was a great atmosphere.

"The service station attracts more than 150,000 people a month, so there is always something going on."

The book gives accounts and observations of customers, staff and local residents. It is published by Athena Press, priced at £7.95.