Driving Standards Agency

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 11:10 pm on 13 May 2008.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of David Heath David Heath Liberal Democrat, Somerton and Frome 11:10, 13 May 2008

The hon. Gentleman is right. Shall I tell him a secret? People from Frome do not go to Chippenham, because there is no reason for them to do so. Chippenham is in a different county, it is not a centre for shopping for us, it is not a regional centre in any way and it is not a place to which we go. Therefore, Chippenham will be entirely alien to most people in the Frome area who are learning to drive—all those many people who have been completely disregarded in the proposals being introduced by the Driving Standards Agency.

I shall finish with some questions that I would like the Minister to answer. Given these apparently spontaneous closures of driving test centres around the country, is there a plan in the hands of the DSA for driving test centre closures? Has it been published? Do Ministers have sight of it? If so, on what basis is it constructed, and over what period was it consulted upon? While we are dealing with consultation, may I ask how is it that no formal consultation took place in accordance with the criteria established by the DSA on a move that will mean that many people will be more than 20 miles from their nearest driving test centre?

It is said, even in the ministerial letter to which I have referred, that most people in the Trowbridge and Frome area will be within the 20-mile area, but that is not the case. Most people will not be within that area, and if the DSA believes otherwise, let it prove it. Let it show us the details on the number of people who currently use the Trowbridge centre who will be within the 20-mile area for Chippenham. If most people are not within that area, can they please have the full consultation to which I think we are entitled?

Until now, the DSA has refused to give any assurances that the Chippenham centre, in turn, is safe from closure at some future point. If the Trowbridge centre is to close, can we be assured that the Chippenham centre, at least, will remain open? Or is the next move that we will be expected to travel to Bristol, down to Exeter or up to Gloucester—to the multipurpose test centres, where the motorcycle testing is to take place?

What this exercise betrays all the way through is a lack of regard for the customer, for the client and for the public. The DSA is arranging things in order to minimise its overheads and to run what it considers to be the most efficient system of providing driving test centres without for one moment thinking about those of us who live not in big cities but in the gaps between. We are not apparently to be catered for at all. I cannot imagine why it is felt appropriate for there to be no driving test centre in the whole of the Mendip area, in the whole of the west Wiltshire area and in the whole of the Bath and north-east Somerset area. That is the proposal being put before us by the DSA. It is apparently going ahead irrespective of what local people say, irrespective of the representations that have been made and with no attempt at consultation. I do not believe that that is fair, and I would like the Minister to talk to the DSA, to find out what the real rationale is and, if possible, to reverse the decision that has apparently been taken with so little thought for the interests of the local community.