Politicians must keep promise to review driving test centre closures

10.06.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 24th Aug 2010

David Heath MP leads protesters in August 2008

Before the general election Theresa Villiers MP, now Conservative Minister of State for Transport and Norman Baker MP, now Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, both pledged to undertake a full review of the nationwide Driving Test Centre (DTC) Closure Programme.

Theresa Villiers MP stated "A Conservative Government would review the nationwide DSA driving test centre closure programme, including the locations of car and motorbike testing centres and those that have been closed. We need to look again at the decisions that have been made. The Government have made a complete mess of the new motorbike testing regime and they have serious questions to answer about their handling of the whole network of driving test centres".

Norman Baker MP pledged that "The Liberal Democrats will conduct a full review of the driving test centre closure programme".

However on June 14th in response to a question from David Mowat, MP for Warrington South, in which he asked the Secretary of State for Transport "whether he plans to undertake a review of all driving test centre closures," Minister Michael Penning MP said: "We have no plans to undertake a general review of all driving test centre closures. We are committed to operating a public service for driver testing that offers good value for money and reasonable access to candidates. The location of particular centres will continue to be determined by the operational suitability of the location, the local demand for the service and the cost of operating there."

Considering that we now have an established coalition Government and that there is common ground on this important issue, the campaign to re-open Trowbridge Test Centre now hopes that a review, ideally a public enquiry, can be instigated in the imminent future. Whilst it's appreciated that the Government is having to control expenditure the campaign points out that the DSA stated that Trowbridge DTC cost £29,531 (incl staff travel and subsistence) per annum to run but it undertook 8,000 tests per annum had an income in excess of £400,000 per annum. Were Trowbridge DTC to reopen, more people would learn to drive in the surrounding area and that the DTC running costs would be more than outweighed by the extra revenue. Based on DSA figures, it only requires around 477 tests per annum to cover the running costs of Trowbridge DTC and at the very least this number of additional tests would result from the reopening of Trowbridge DTC. There would also be a higher number of additional tests if motorbike module 2 tests were also undertaken at Trowbridge or Chippenham DTCs.

The new MPs for Wiltshire are being asked to take up this issue and advise when a review of the nationwide DSA driving test centre closure programme, including the locations of car and motorbike testing centres and those that have been closed, will commence and what format it will take. SW Wilts MP Andrew Murrison has been active in pressing Ministers for clarification.

It's also disappointing that the review into the motorcycle testing fiasco is being carried out by the Driving Standards Agency - the quango responsible for the disastrous test centre closure programme in the first place. Getting them to review their own incompetence is rather like asking the mafia to review the problem of organised crime.

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Towards the end of the Labour government a parliamentary report highlighted the catalogue of bungling and ineptitude by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) when it closed Trowbridge and other local test centres to force people to use the new Multi-Purpose Test Centres.

The report can be seen at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmtran/442/442.pdf)

The report, undertaken following the new motorbike test, lambasts the DSA for causing "significant cost and inconvenience to test candidates" whilst only realising insignificant savings and "a very small capital gain" for themselves and the Government. The report slams the DSA's "flawed" and "dogmatic" approach where the interests of learner drivers and instructors were seen to be less important than making cost savings for the DSA and the Government. It encourages a "renewed emphasis on customer convenience and value for money. This will probably mean retaining some smaller test sites". The Committee "expects to see rapid progress on the development of a more customer-focussed approach to the booking and delivery of tests. This has implications for the number and geographical spread of test sites". The report goes on to describe the DSA's implementation of the decision to develop MPTCs as being "inept" and slates the DSA for having "severely damaged" the relationship and trust between themselves and their customers and states that "it will take a long time and much resource to mend what has been broken but the Government and the DSA now need to take urgent action to establish a way forward in collaboration with the (learner training) industry".

The motorcycle test was changed following an EU directive, which required certain manoeuvres to be undertaken at a speed of 50kph. This translates as just under 32mph, so the exercises couldn't legally be done on a public road with a 30mph limit. A common sense approach would have meant the British government getting the rules amended to take account of our use of mph not kph, but instead the government used the rule as an excuse for closing local test centres.

The previous Trowbridge test centre premises in Wiltshire Drive are currently unoccupied and could easily be brought back into use by the DSA.

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