The Government has just spent £71 million pounds on building motorcycle test centres, all for the sake of 1.2 miles an hour, what a waste. It’s all thanks to the metric nuts in Europe, who decided that our motorcyclists have to perform manoeuvres at a speed of 50km per hour when taking their L-test. The problem is that equates to 31.2mph, meaning that these moves can’t be performed on the streets where they’ve traditionally been carried out as the limits there are mostly 30mph. So the DSA has had to splash out millions on more than 60 test centres, so that candidates don’t have to speed to pass their test. It is maddening that for the sake of some EU directive taxpayers have been hit with a huge bill, even more so when the money could have been put to use better elsewhere.
The DSA falls under the umbrella of the Department for Transport and so money spent by the DSA on test centres means other areas looked after by the DfT might have to go without. I was interviewed on LBC last night by Petrie Hosken about roadworks and potholes and she was complaining that many of the craters in the road caused by the cold snap have yet to be filled; some of the money wasted on these test centres could have gone towards those repairs. Local councils across the country (see articles in the BBC, Telegraph and also here for just a few examples) have been struggling to find the cash to meet the cost of repairing their roads and filling potholes after the unexpected cold snap and years of under-funding, meanwhile the Government has spent £71m in the bat of an eyelid, on an EU whim. What about a tax rebate for motorists? Drivers collectively fork out millions a year in vehicle-tax, and pay council tax for their roads to be maintained, but then have to pay hundreds more repairing damage to their vehicle if they hit a pothole. Motorists are coughing-up twice and might well wonder what on earth they’re paying all this tax for.
It seems unbelievable that Britain couldn’t opt out of the 50km per hour requirement for tests, and save taxpayers some cash. In a situation like this the speed limit for Britain should have been allowed to be set in miles, not kilometres to avoid an expensive fiasco