Parking for car sharing

[PiesAreGood]

I was wondering if anyone has any tips or recommendations for parking up for a weekend near the M6 around west Manchester to leave a car for the weekend?

The situation: a mate I often do weekend trips to the lake district with has moved reet down south but we are still heading to the lakes for a weekend together every so often.

I'm living in the peaks so we could both drive up independently to the lakes but I'd like to avoid the driving/parking impact on the environment.

If my mate picks me up from my home on his way north that is a massive detour for him making his journey even longer which seems unfair.

I have looked into getting a train over to a station near the M6 and that works great on Friday and Saturdays but the train service ends ridiculously early on a Sunday so getting home is tricky.

A win-win solution would seem to be for me to drive to the M6, and then we leave one car and continue together up to the Lakes, returning on the Sunday evening to collect the left car and wend our separate ways home.

It seems like motorways should have car parks to enable this sort of thing, but I'm not aware of any. Service stations all seem to charge exorbitant fees. Could park on a residential street but I don't want to overly annoy residents.

So, is anyone aware of anywhere safe that you could park up Friday to Sunday eve near the M6 in the Manchester area to car share for a trip to the Lakes?

[lwarby]

Have parked overnight at Warrington B&Q, near to junction 22 on the M6, when car sharing with mates and traveling to Edale.

https://www.diy.com/store/bq-warrington/BQ_WTN733

[PiesAreGood]

Ooh interesting hint, thanks!

[noel]

We've used Chimneys hotel's car park near the M6 near Knutsford in the past, but only for day trips.

[dantodman]

Under the motorway where the M65 J2 /meets the M61 J9, loads park there.

Dan

[PiesAreGood]

Under the motorway where the M65 J2 /meets the M61 J9, loads park there.

Dan

Hee hee, I've parked there for an hour or so myself.