James Duddridge, MP for Rochford and Southend East, today wrote to the Chief Executive Officer at the Driving Standards Agency and the Government minister responsible at the Department for Transport to ask them to reconsider closing the driving test centre at Prittlewell Chase.
This comes after it was announced late last week, that the Driving Standards Agency had agreed to defer the introduction of the new European rules governing motor cycle tests from their original date of 29th September 2008 to the 30th March 2009. James has asked the Driving Standards Agency to reconsider their decision to close the test centre at Prittlewell Chase and give it at least a temporary reprieve in light of this news. The introduction of the new rules on motor cycle testing was the basis used by the Driving Standards Agency to argue that they desperately needed a new test centre at Basildon and would therefore have to close the old one in Southend.
Speaking earlier, James said:
“People in my constituency have been short changed by the Driving Standards Agency with the closure of the local test centre they now face long, time consuming and expensive journeys to Basildon in order to take their driving test. Now that the Driving Standards Agency has agreed they can wait until next March until they have to introduce the new motor cycle test, I don’t see why things can’t continue as normal for the meantime.”
James’ call has been prompted in part by the revelation that planning permission for the new test centre in Basildon was applied for in December 2007, some months before the public consultation on the need for the new centre, and the closure of the current one in Southend even began.
James said:
“If the Driving Standards Agency are now saying that the whole reason for having the new centre can be ignored until next March, perhaps they can use the time in the interim to hold a proper, independent public consultation on the future of the test centre in Southend-on-Sea. I would welcome such a move, as would my constituents who took part in the initial public consultation without knowing that the decision to move to Basildon had already been taken.”
29 September 2008