DRIVING instructors have expressed concern over the future of the Aberystwyth test centre used by hundreds of learners.

Instructors have called on the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency, the UK Government body which oversees driver testing, to clarify when a new test centre will open after it vacates its base at the Old Welsh School between the railway station and Marks and Spencer to make way for a new cafe quarter on 27 September.

The DVSA has been granted planning permission to set up an office in Aberystwyth Town Football Club but it said last week it was “working to secure a replacement site for driving tests” and that, after 27 September, car driving tests will be available to book at Lampeter and Cardigan.

Speaking to the Cambrian News this week, Steve Griffiths, of Aberystwyth Driving School, said: “We don’t know what’s going on.

“The DVSA were meant to relocate to Aberystwyth Town Football Club, but we don’t know why that hasn’t happened yet.

“It is coming up to the busiest period for tests now with the students returning to university, and we have no test centre.

“Driving students, many just 17 years old, are going to have to travel 30 miles to Lampeter to take their test. That’s an hour in a car. And the cost will go up too.”

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