A PUB chain has been accused of putting "profits before sense" after opening a new outlet at a motorway service station.

The move sends motorists "all the wrong signals", an alcohol charity has warned.

Alcohol Concern said the new JD Wetherspoon pub on the M40 was a "backwards step".

The Hope And Champion is at junction 2 of the M40 in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. The company has spent more than £1.1 million on the first pub to be opened at a motorway service area.

Eric Appleby, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said: "Campaigners have worked tirelessly to improve road safety in the UK and persuade people that drinking and driving don't mix and this feels like a backward step."

Sir Ian Gilmore,chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance, said that people will succumb to temptation if they see alcohol in front of them.

Eddie Gershon, spokesman for JD Wetherspoon, added: "It is a well-run pub and people have to act responsibility, which we think people do."