North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has called on the Welsh Government to take action to help ensure that the Caernarfon Driving Test Centre for lorry, bus and coach drivers is kept in Caernarfon.
Raising the matter with the Transport Minister in the Senedd yesterday, Mr Isherwood expressed concern that the vocational test centre could be moved to Wrexham and asked the Minister to help prevent this.
He said:
“The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) have been in negotiations for another location in Caernarfon, on the Cibyn industrial estate. Subsequent to that they said a move to Wrexham, a 90 minute drive from Caernarfon, is a contingency, that officials continue to look for alternative sites in Caernarfon after not finding what they describe as a ‘suitable’ location, and that tests should still be booked from the current site until further notice.
“What assistance, if any, can the Welsh Government provide in not only understanding why the site on Cibyn industrial estate was deemed unsuitable, and whether that can be remedied, but also perhaps on identifying, or helping identify, alternative suitable sites in order to keep the Centre in or near Caernarfon?”
The Minister told Mr Isherwood: “Our regional team in North Wales stand ready to assist DVSA in identifying an alternative site in Caernarfon. So, too, do Business Wales, and I've asked my officials to work with Gwynedd County Council in assessing the reasons why DVSA have determined that it may not be a suitable site, the one that they currently have, and to ascertain exactly what it is that they would wish to have in a new alternative site in Caernarfon”.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the UK Department of Transport, Baroness Vere, has now also agreed to take the matter up with the DVSA.
