Motorcycle training schools in Scotland forced to shut down

Plans to construct multipurpose test centres is leading motorcycle instructors in Scotland to close their doors, because the new facilities would be too far away for their pupils to get to safely.

• Motorcyclists lives at risk in new test fiasco

The latest victim is Greenock-based Trafalgar Motorcycles, which has stopped offering tuition for learners, because the Driving Standards Agency plans to site a new test facility in Glasgow.

The most direct route from Greenock to Glasgow is along the M8, which learners would not be able to use.

Trafalgar’s only option would have been to transport pupils to the test centre by van, which would increase the costs of learning.

The case follows from the closure of Argyll Motorcycle Training, which shut-up shop when it emerged that the DSA planned to locate its new test centre in Fort William, rather than Oban.

Alan Reid, MP for Argyll and Bute, has previously told MCN he would do everything in his power to have the switch to the new centres delayed from October 1 to allow more facilities to be constructed.

He points out that some of his constituents could be left with a 3-day round trip to sit their motorcycle test if the DSA does not expand the number of centres it plans to construct in Scotland.