New call made for taxi testing centre in Berwick

Under current rules, testing and inspection of hackney carriage taxis and private hire vehicles must be completed by one of three Northumberland County Council MOT testing stations.

This has been the case since 2016, with council officers unsatisified with the quality of testing carried out at some garages.

However, it means that taxi drivers in Berwick have to travel at least 30 miles south in order to reach a council testing centre that allows them to continue working and their vehicles to remain on the road.

Due to capacity issues across the county, drivers sometimes find themselves having to drive to the other test centres in Stakeford – 54 miles away – and even Hexham, which is more than 80 miles away.

Speaking at Wednesday’s meeting of the council’s licensing and regulatory committee, Coun Catherine Seymour, who represents the Berwick North ward, led the call for a testing centre in her town.

She said: “We have been asking for a long time if we can have a testing station at the top of England. Some have to drive a long way, some can’t get in Alnwick and have to go all the way to Hexham.

“Can that be looked at as a high priority?”

Coun Alan Sharp said the issue had been a problem for at least the last 15 years he has served on the committee.

He said: “There are issues in the north which we need to address. I’m of the opinion that we should try to work with the garages as well as we can to ensure the continuation of taxi businesses in Northumberland.

“There is a case at the moment where somebody asked for an MOT test a week ago and hasn’t heard back. Someone else has had their test expire so they haven’t got a running vehicle.”

He continued: “This has always been an issue since I became a councillor all those years ago. We need to look into this matter further. We have had this issue here since I was on this committee, and I’ve been on it for 15 years.

“We need to look to see if there is a garage we can use in Berwick.”

Coun Alex Wallace agreed, adding: “I absolutely support that. One of the aims of this council is to tackle inequalities – it can’t be equal if somebody in Berwick has to travel to Alnwick or Stakeford.

“It is not equal, it is unequal.”

Members were discussing a report which sought to approve six as-yet unidentified garages – two in the west, two in the north and two in the south east of the county – to carry out the relevant tests in circumstances where the current garages cannot fulfil demand.

The report’s recommendations were unanimously approved by the committee.