Green light for driving test centre

PLANNING bosses have given the green light for a temporary driving test centre at Warrington’s Paddington House Hotel – despite opposition from local residents.
Members of the borough council’s planning committee were told the temporary centre would operate for only 8-10 weeks before relocating to permanent premises.
Although residents – and Poulton-with-Fearnhead Parish Council – expressed fears about increased traffic on local roads, highways chiefs did not oppose the proposal.
Tests will start and end in the hotel car park, but the main, practical part of the tests would take place some distance away.
The Driving Standards Agency sought permission to use the hotel following the Government’s decision to reinstate a driving test centre in Warrington.
The application follows the Government’s decision last year to reinstate a driving test centre in Warrington. The original test centre was closed in 2008, despite a major campaign to keep it open, making Warrington the largest town in the country without a test centre.
Warrington South MP David Mowat and borough councillor Paul Campbell spearheaded the campaign to get the test centre reinstated.
Cllr Campbell (pictured) said: “I am delighted we are to get a test centre again.
“Local driving schools were losing business because people were having to go to St Helens to take their tests.”