Local MP Angela Rayner has written to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps asking him to at least delay the planned closure of the Hyde driving test centre.

She met with driving instructors at her advice surgery recently to hear their concerns about the centre's closure.

As a result, she fired off the letter to the minister.

The Ashton-under-Lyne MP has already written to the DVSA along with fellow MPs Jonathan Reynolds (Hyde and Stalybridge) and Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) to appeal for a rethink.

We recently reported that the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) confirmed that the centre on Perrin Street in Hyde is due to close permanently after Sunday 10 April. 

However, the decision means learner drivers in the area will have to take their practical test at the nearest centres in Bredbury in Stockport, Chadderton in Oldham or Buxton in the High Peak.

Driving instructors have clubbed together to appeal to keep the centre open.

Jim O’Connor, 60, who runs Strive to Drive in Tameside, set up an online petition calling for the centre to be saved. It has now been signed by more than 5,500 people.

Instructors say the closure will have a huge financial impact on people wanting to learn to drive in Hyde and the surrounding areas and add to the pressure instructors face travelling further to other centres.

You can find the petition at https://www.change.org/p/driver-and-vehicle-standards-agency-save-hyde-driving-test-centre 

In her letter to Grant Shapps, MP Rayner says Tameside will be left without a testing facility at a time when pressure has grown following the pandemic for driving tests and there is already a backlog.

“The population of Tameside is around 235,000 and the population of Stockport (where Bredbury is located) is around 250,000. I am sure you will agree that to have just one test centre with six examiners for that combined population simply isn’t adequate.

“If securing a test spot continues to be such a huge problem I fear it will lead to a rise in the number of unlicensed drivers in my constituency,” she adds, stating: “I am sure the safety risks this poses do not need to be spelled out to you.”

She says Tameside Council Chief Executive Steven Pleasant MBE has also offered to meet with the DVSA to explore solutions to maintain a test centre in the borough. 

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