The DVSA has confirmed it plans to close a driving test centre in Peterborough next year, just months after local instructors said they had been assured by officials it would remain open.
Tom Woods from C-Way Driver Training, said: “We called a meeting with them last September, and were categorically told that there was no way it would be closed.”
Martin Owens, DVSA’s regional operations manager, told CM it plans to cease testing at the facility from March 2016, but said it was “actively looking for privately owned sites to deliver vocational tests in the Peterborough area.”
He added: “We will announce further details about the last day of testing at Peterborough LGV and of alternative sites as soon as they are available.”
Woods said that the lack of communication with local businesses had been insulting. “We were the last people to know. We still haven’t officially been told."
He added that even if DVSA did build a new site, the lack of test availability between its opening and the closure of the current centre could be damaging to businesses.
“The DVSA is in a muddle, they haven’t got enough examiners and they’re trying to juggle stuff around. I appreciate that. But we’ve got a driver shortage looming,” he said.
Jim Brady, chief instructor of A1 Driving School in Peterborough, said: “There’s about 20 driving schools in the area, so it’s going to put them out of business, and that will affect some lorry drivers, because they just won’t get trained.”
The Peterborough test centre made headlines last year when the average wait for an HGV test rose to 11 weeks, against a UK average of just three.
Owens said: “We acknowledge that waiting times remain higher than we would like at Peterborough LGV test centre. We have increased the number of examiners at the test centre from two to three and we are due to train a further examiner to deliver tests in this category. We will then be able to offer additional LGV tests from this centre by the end of September.”
