I’m relaunching the campaign to reopen South Tyneside’s former driving test centre
A driving instructor has relaunched the campaign to reopen South Tyneside’s former test centre.
Vikki Holt, a driving instructor from Hebburn, has restarted the campaign to urge the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) to consider reopening the test centre in South Tyneside.
The DVSA closed the centre, on Jarrow’s Bede Industrial Estate, in 2022 as the agency looked to reduce its estate and carbon footprint.
At the time, there were hopes that the centre could remain open when it was revealed that the South Tyneside facility cost the DVSA less than £10,400 in 2020/21, including rates, utilities and a token ‘peppercorn rent’.
Vikki, who owns Top Gun Driving School, initially led the original campaign of driving instructors which called on the DVSA to U-turn on the decision to close the centre and now she is issuing fresh calls for the site to be reopened.
The 55-year-old said: “It was a bureaucratic decision to close eight test centres in the UK at the time, with two of them being in the North East.
“Since then, the DVSA’s driving test waiting list times have gotten longer and longer, yet we were told at the time of the closure that it wouldn’t impact test waiting times.
“I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think that getting South Tyneside’s test centre reopened wasn’t a distinct possibility.
“The DVSA are struggling to recruit examiners at the moment and it sounds like they are about to do a big push on this to get rid of the test backlog.
“If they were to reopen the test centre in South Tyneside, that will give them even more capacity to tackle the backlog and I believe that in doing so, it would be in the best interests of people not only in the borough, but also for the DVSA.
“The only way they can tackle the backlog is to increase their amount of examiners to capacity.
“I don’t think this opportunity is going to come around again and if there is any chance to get it reopened, then it is now.”
Vikki has also told the Shields Gazette about the impact that the closure of the South Tyneside test centre has had on both learners and driving instructors.
She commented: “Pupils and instructors are absolutely demented at the moment - we went through a phase last month where there were no test slots released on a Monday morning.
“I’ve heard that one pupil was behind 32,000 other people in the queue - instructors can jump straight to the front to try and book tests for their pupils and even we are struggling to find available slots.
“Because pupils are struggling to get tests booked, they aren’t wanting to pay for lessons every week and therefore, they are pausing their lessons but when they are trying to come back, they are struggling to get in with instructors.
“More importantly, with pupils now learning to drive and taking their tests in Sunderland, they aren’t as familiar as they should be with the roads in South Tyneside and this is having an big impact on road safety.
“There is also huge black-market at the moment for driving tests, with people reselling test slots at extortionate prices.
“We’re watching pupils who are going through the right channels struggling to get a test while more and more people just bypass instructors and learn privately with someone like a parent.”
Vikki has launched a petition to urge the DVSA to reopen the test centre in South Tyneside and is hoping to get as much support as possible from members of the public.
She added: “Everyone has been very supportive of relaunching the campaign and we need everyone to share and sign the petition - there needs to be as many people behind this as possible.
“So many people would love to see that test centre reopened and I’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen.”
You can find out more by visiting: https://www.facebook.com/savesouthshieldstestcentre and sign the petition at: https://www.change.org/p/re-open-south-shields-driving-test-centre.