Bring back the South Tyneside Test Centre, our community needs it
Shields Gazette readers have had their say on South Tyneside’s former DVSA Test Centre being put up for sale.
The former Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) Test Centre, on the Bede Industrial Estate, in Jarrow, has been put up for sale.
The site, which closed in April 2022, is on the property market for offers in excess of £200,000.
Photos on the listing show the former test centre boarded up - with the majority of drivers in the borough now having to take their tests at the Sunderland test centre.
Shields Gazette readers have been reacting to the news on social media, with many highlighting that the move has caused huge waiting lists for driving tests.
This is what you had to say on the Shields Gazette Facebook page:
Lynne Downey: “It's a disgrace.
“We are being pulled into shared services with Sunderland. We need our own test centre as the waiting lists are huge.”
Helen Wade: “Shocking. They need the test centre back in Shields. We are a big area and the time you have to wait for Sunderland is absolutely shocking.”
Karen Ambelez: “There’s no tests available, this needs reopened.”
Laura Sutton: “Bring back the test centre, our community needs it.”
Averill Shalliker: “This is disgusting, we are a well established town. We had our own hospital and our own DVSA centre but it’s all been taken away from us.”
“We do not want our hospital etc. to be in Sunderland, we were a better equipped town than Sunderland.
“We don’t want to be Tyne and Wear, we want to be South Shields in our own right.”
David Gray: “The town is expanding, new housing estates being added and services are being taken away - utter madness.”
Nora Watson: “It's a disgrace.
“Why should people from a good size town like ours have to travel so far for tests our test centre was perfectly placed?”
Tracie Crumbie: “Should be reinstated as a test centre. Disgraceful.”