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David Heath fights driving test centre closure
David Heath has launched a campaign to stop the closure of the nearest Driving Test Centre to Frome in Trowbridge.
The Driving Standards Agency has announced that it intends to close the test centre in order to sell the lease to the premises, which will means that learner drivers will face unfamiliar conditions in Bristol or Chippenham for their tests or a regular hour and a half round trip to Chippenham for lessons.
Mr Heath has called the proposed closure “ill-considered and wrong”. He says that learner drivers will spend the bulk of their lessons just getting to the town where their test will take place, which will be disastrous to their learning, and costly to both learners and instructors.
Mr Heath said: “Yet again the interests of people in our area are being ignored by a bureaucracy who is obviously more interested in cutting costs than providing a service.
“By closing the Trowbridge test centre, learners in Frome will have to go to Chippenham or Bristol as their nearest test centres. Either means long drives, in the case of Chippenham a 46-mile round trip, but more importantly 40 minutes driving each way. Bristol is even worse, with two hours out of a three hour lesson taken in just getting to the area their test will be set in.
"At the moment, Trowbridge is just nine miles from the centre of Frome. If it is closed there will be not a single test centre in Mendip, West Wiltshire or B&NES.
“A lot of people will find it hard to get a three hour slot away from work or school to take a lesson, and it will be expensive. Inevitably it will put learner drivers in Frome at a disadvantage compared with those who live nearer the test sites.
“Why do the DSA think that north-east Somerset and west Wiltshire don’t need access to a driving test centre? The decision to close Trowbridge is ill-considered and wrong.”
David Heath has already written to the DSA to express his concern, and intends to raise the matter in the House of Commons.
Give us back our bus stop bench, says David Heath
People in Frome who are waiting for a bus in the town centre, or have simply shopped till they drop, are finding it a little bit harder on the feet in Frome, since the bench which used to stand outside the old post office was taken away.
Now David Heath is asking for assurances from Mendip Council that the seat is put back. Mr Heath said: “It was quite clear from talking to people in the town over the weekend how upset they are about the seat being moved, particularly as it follows the removal of the benches from the Westway Centre last year.
"Having a chance to sit down, particularly when you’re waiting for a bus, is not a great deal to ask, and for some elderly people it’s essential. I’ve even heard about some using seats inside Boot’s the Chemists, which I’m sure is not what they intended them for.
“Apparently the seats have been removed to facilitate the erection of scaffolding. I understand that, although it would have been better if the seating had simply been moved temporarily rather than removed altogether.
"But the most important thing is to ensure that they are put back in due course. It’s a pretty important amenity for people in the town, and having lost the benches on private property in the Westway, I don’t want to leave it to chance.”
David Heath calls for West Country questions in Parliament
David Heath has called for time to be set aside in the parliamentary timetable for questions about the west-country.
And he’s suggested a good place to start would be the “most-neglected trunk road in Britain” the A303 and the “worst rail service” provided by First Great Western.
David Heath called on the Leader of the House Harriet Harman to find ways to let MPs representing the south west to have their say.
Mr Heath pointed out that, despite having devolved parliament and assembly, the House of Commons still has regular sessions for welsh and Scottish questions. He asked why the south west, with a population just as big, doesn’t have a similar opportunity.
He said; “There is a serious point about the opportunities we have to raise matters which affect our region as a whole. For instance, as we start the holiday period hundreds and thousands of visitors will come into the West Country using some of the worst infrastructure in any region. I have been calling for investment in the A303, the most neglected trunk road in Britain, for many years, and yet we’re still waiting, and the rail services to the south west are a disgrace.
“We need to find ways of applying the same pressure that those representing Scotland and Wales are able to muster to make sure the West Country gets a fair deal. At the moment that is transparently not the case.”
David Heath calls for rethink on planning rules for thatches
David Heath has called for a rethink on the way planning officers deal with thatched cottages in an intervention in the House of Commons.
In a question to local government minister Hazel Blears, Mr Heath called for relaxing guidelines on listed buildings to deal with a national shortage of thatching straw.
Mr Heath said: “I’ve previously drawn attention to the huge costs those who live in listed thatched cottages face when it’s time to replace or repair the roof. Now things are even more difficult because the effects of adverse weather on harvests mean that there is a shortage of some types of cereal straw for thatching.
"Council officials insist, however, that there can be no variation from the material used for the previous thatch, ruling out the use of reed, other straws or imported material, which is creating more and more of a headache for thatchers and owners.
“I’m not convinced the original rules make sense anyway, as it is almost impossible to tell from the look of it what material has been used, and I suspect historically a much wider range of material would have been used than our current-day planners seem to think.
"But it just needs a bit of common-sense to be applied, and that’s what I’m asking for. Unfortunately the secretary of state, who represents the very urban Salford, looked as though she had never heard of a thatched cottage let alone addressed the issue when I asked her the question, but she has promised to write to me, so I’m hopeful someone in the department will at least look into the matter.
“Certainly there are still a fair number of thatched properties in my constituency where the owners are facing real problems at the moment.”