DTp's heavy load
Page 7
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
GOVERNMENT proposals to reduce the cost of vehicle licensing include the transfer of 31 Local Vehicle Licensing Offices' work to the Post Office. But heavy goods vehicle driving licences will stay with the Department of Transport.
As part of a plan to save £13.5m, DTp has sought the opinions of unions and industry over the transfer of licence renewal work from the LVLOs to post offices. Around 1000 LVLO jobs would disappear.
But DTp says that renewal of hgv. licences, Greater London driving test applications, and new registrations will not be transferred to the Post Office.
A DTp spokesman was unable to tell CM whether this would be done from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre at Swansea, or if applications would be channelled through the 50 remaining LVLOs. Most of the threatened LVLOs are in Scotland — at Ayr, Dumfries, Inverness, Keith, Kirkwall, Lerwick, Oban, Selkirk, Stirling, Stornoway, Stranraer, and Wick.
The others are at Barrow-in-Furness, Bolton, Kendal, Warrington, Middlesbrough, York, Boston, Dudley, Grimsby, Aberystwyth, Haverfordwest, Hereford, Cambridge, Barnstaple, Plymouth, Newport (Isle of Wight), Salisbury, Canterbury and Hastings.
The plans envisage a transfer over a two year period and there is likely to be an increase in the number of Post Office staff engaged in vehicle licensing work.
An initial reaction from the Freight Transport Association was to welcome the reduction in the number of civil servants engaged in the system, but it is waiting to hear its members' comments before responding in detail.