Tuesday 10 February 2015
For many years, the Traffic and Transport Services Unit has been conducting off-road manoeuvres for Large Goods Vehicles (LGV)/Passenger Carrying Vehicles (PCV) and car and trailer practical driving tests adjacent Le Murier, along the current access road to Fontaines Vinery.
However, the site continues to represent a "compromise solution", from a testing standards perspective and the close proximity of an increasingly busy light industrial facility also makes it more problematic. A number of tests in recent months have had to be cancelled at very short notice or even mid test due to external factors making the site temporarily unusable.
Therefore, the Environment Department has made great efforts to find an alternative and cost effective solution but until recently has been unsuccessful in its attempts to find an appropriate site. However, a suitable piece of States owned land has recently been made available to the Department by Commerce and Employment for this purpose. The area is a section of land adjacent the New Slaughter House at Longue Hougue, which with the addition of a small amount of extra hard surfaced area, will provide an ideal location close to the Unit's Bulwer Avenue offices where practical driving test manoeuvres can be carried out.
The Department has applied and has been granted the necessary permissions from the Planning Division to use this site.
The Department will have the ability to use the site on any week day morning or afternoon except Tuesdays, which gives much more availability than at the present site, enabling more tests to be carried out during weeks of high demand. More importantly, it does not have the health and safety issues that the Department has to contend with at its current site.
This initiative shows the benefit of greater inter-departmental co-operation and will ensure that a cost effective and much improved facility is provided to the Driving Test Service.
The works to make the site suitable for testing are currently being carried out and from Monday 2nd March, the reverse exercise manoeuvre, which forms part of the test for categories B+E, C1, C1+E, C, C+E, D1, D1+E, D and D+E, will be carried out at this new location. At the new location, the manoeuvre will alter slightly in that candidates will not have to reverse around a corner, as at the current site; the exercise will now mirror the current DVSA test regulations.
If candidates require any further information relating to these tests then they are asked to contact the Department's Senior Driving Examiner at its Bulwer Avenue office.
Contact Information:
Colin Le Page, Principal Traffic Officer
Environment Department
Tel: 243400
