Note that the permanent new location is now confirmed.
An email from DVSA reports that the lease at the Beeston Business Park “has been terminated”, and the last test there will be on Tuesday 26 July, 2016. My first – and absolutely sincere – reaction was: thank God for that!
From 1 August, tests will be conducted from The Village Hotel in Chilwell. This is a temporary arrangement, though they don’t say for how long. However, there is a McDonalds and a Costa next door, and I will put money on it that McDonalds and Costa don’t start sticking up stupid notes everywhere forbidding instructors from leaving the waiting room or holding the front door open for more than 10 seconds “because it messes up the air conditioning”, as if none of the other residents ever do so.
Apart from the very pleasant couple who run the cafe in the Beeston Business Centre, who I will miss, everyone else who works there detests the presence of DVSA and driving instructors. If anything goes wrong (blocked toilets), it is blamed on ADIs, and although all those pathetic notes are in the Centre Manager’s name, it is the stupid bitch in reception who is responsible. The manager is just too spineless to stand up to her.
But back to Chilwell. The arrangement is similar to that at Clifton – instructors are to wait in their cars and the examiners will come out to them. There is no waiting room, and no toilet facilities – though as I have already said, there is a McDonalds and a Costa just across the road. Furthermore, McDonalds and Costa are open from early in the morning until after tests conclude, and they are open weekends (at Beeston, the place is shut on weekends). I also note that there is a Starbucks in The Village, and I am assuming this is accessible to the public without them having to be members (I don’t like Starbucks and won’t be using it).
DVSA adds the note:
…access to ‘The Village Hotel Nottingham’ venue is only available to those candidates attending for test; you won’t be allowed to use this site for practice either during or outside of working hours (including weekends)
I can guarantee that there will be some arseholes who ignore that and try to practice bay park in there.
DVSA notes also that they have a long-term solution in the pipeline, and are working towards securing a lease for the site they have in mind. They have wisely not identified the site this time – when they did that with the current Beeston location, it was quickly gridlocked by the aforementioned arsehole instructors.
As far as I’m concerned, moving away from that Beeston Business Park is the best thing that’s happened in a long time. Good riddance to it.
An email alert from DVSA notes that there will be a local meeting at Beeston on 22 June 2016 providing more information about the relocation.