The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has issued a warning ahead of planned strike action in the coming days.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union will stage industrial action in response to pay, pensions, jobs, and redundancy terms. According to the DVSA, this could affect people planning to take a driving test.
A national strike will take place tomorrow (April 28), with the PCS union warning that the strike action will affect driving examiners employed at a series of driving test centres, including Atherton, Bredbury, Bury, Cheetham Hill, and West Didsbury.
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Some of the practical tests that will be affected include:
- Car driving tests
- Motorcycle tests
- Lorry, bus, coach and minibus driving tests (these are known as vocational tests)
- Tractor or specialist vehicle driving tests
- Approved driving instructor (ADI) part 2 (driving ability) or part 3 (instructional ability) tests
- ADI standards checks
- Moped and motorcycle compulsory basic training (CBT) checks - but not the training courses themselves
The DVSA has also stated that it will automatically rebook your tests for you if it cannot go ahead because of the strike action. Learners should wait for the DVSA to send the new details within 5 to 10 working days.
However, not all examiners are members of the PCS union, and if they are, not all will go on strike.
Which test centres will be affected by the strike?
The DVSA said that the PCS union has informed it of which test centres will be affected. However, it also highlighted that it may not be fully aware of all the centres affected until the day of the strike.
In the North West the following test centres will be affected:
- Atherton
- Barnsley
- Barrow In Furness
- Beverley LGV
- Blackburn with Darwen
- Blackpool
- Bolton
- Bradford (Heaton)
- Bradford (Thornbury)
- Bredbury
- Bridlington
- Bury
- Carlisle
- Carlisle LGV
- Chadderton
- Cheetham Hill
- Chester
- Chorley
- Crewe
- Doncaster
- Grimsby Coldwater
- Halifax
- Heckmondwike
- Heysham
- Horsforth
- Huddersfield
- Hull
- Kendal
- Knaresborough
- Leeds
- Macclesfield
- Nelson
- Norris Green
- Northallerton
- Pontefract
- Preston
- Rochdale
- Rotherham
- Sale
- Scarborough
- Scunthorpe
- Sheffield (Handsworth)
- Sheffield (Middlewood Road)
- Southport
- Speke
- St Helens
- Steeton
- Upton
- Wakefield
- Wallasey
- Walton LGV
- Warrington
- West Didsbury
- Widnes
- Workington
- York
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