A contemplation room at Leigh Delamere service station is proving popular with motorists who want a quiet moment to themselves or to pray.

It was set up in the Moto service station on the M4 near Chippenham earlier this year to allow people to have somewhere calm to relax.

The dimly-lit, white-walled room, which is furnished with nothing but a few upright chairs, has been designed to let drivers unwind in a quiet atmosphere. No smoking, eating, drinking or mobile phones are allowed in the room.

There is an arrow on the ceiling showing the East and plenty of room for a prayer mat and a shelf for the Koran.

Operations manager Keith Palin said it was open 24-hours a day to anyone whether or not they had religious beliefs.

He said it was set up to accommodate a need, particularly for Muslims who needed to stop and pray.

"People were coming in and finding a corner to pray in, so we decided to give them a private, quiet space," he said. "An amazing amount of people use it. There is normally someone in it at all times of day."

He also said it had become a place for people to unwind from the stress of driving or from being stuck in traffic.

Moto has 47 sites across the country and launched the rooms to help drivers relax from the stresses of driving.

Moto's managing director Tim Moss said: "These contemplation rooms provide a little oasis of calm where people can unwind."

The zones were the idea of IT project manager Ghulam Rasool, of Basildon, Essex, who responded after Moto asked readers of a motoring magazine for ideas to improve its service areas.

He said the rooms were needed to allow the mind to slow down. "I spend a lot of time driving and it struck me how useful it would be to have somewhere where drivers could just chill out."