...GET INVOLVED.. THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSULTATION
“THEY HAVE NO IDEA HOW IT WORKS ON THE STREET!”
For as long as the industry has existed there has been a very clear understanding that those behind the desk writing the rules have a very poor understanding of how it actually works; Have they sat behind the wheel transporting drunks, aggressive passengers or fussy people who will report you for saying something in a tone they were not happy with? Or have they sat watching vehicles licensed in other areas running around in your own areas with your regulators doing nothing to enforce the local rules against those vehicles, but targeting you instead?
HAVING YOUR SAY
Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram and various other platforms are great for expressing your views and opinions amongst each other, but they do nothing to make any changes happen, in much the same way as sitting in a pub moaning about the government, but then not voting. Talk is cheap as they say.
WHAT’S THE POINT, NO ONE LISTENS
We all believe that consultations are just a box ticking exer- cise, but there is a reason for that; it is simply down to the fact that when consultations happen, we don’t bother replying!
A consultation is a legal requirement for regulators, and indeed government bodies, to ask you for your thoughts and opinions, openly admitting that they do not know how the suggested changes will affect you, or what your opinion is about those changes; SO TELL THEM!! If you do not bother to explain how it will Impact you, how can you ever expect them to know?
LOCAL CONSULTATIONS
There are various local consultations active right now within your own regions discussing policy changes; those that affect you locally, but not nationally - they are just as impor- tant to respond to as they will be far more rapidly adopted at local levels. So please, make sure you get involved and have your say in those.
They can be regarding local rank spaces - increasing or decreasing them, local cycle lanes, colour of vehicles, age limits of vehicles, first aid kits, penalty points schemes, fire extinguishers, CCTV, tinted windows, clean air charging zones, and a whole host of other issues.
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Because the MoT testing station is only issuing a local com- pliance certificate, neglecting to, or being instructed not to issue a nationally recognised roadworthiness document, all of the above could be so easily avoided simply by handing over both pieces of paper at the point of the vehicle passing the roadworthiness AND local compliance test.
LOCAL COMPLIANCE IS NATIONAL?
It was of course suggested that the local compliance test is nationally exempt, which I welcomed as it gave me that chance to explain how and why this is simply not the case. Since local conditions vary so widely from regulator to regulator, there being no national standards, for example: one region may require first aid kits, whilst their neighbours may not; some may require a fire extinguisher; some may require CCTV; some may have specific vehicle types or colour, some may not; some may have tinted window restric- tions, some may not; the differences from one local authority area to another are far too widespread to allow for any kind of national compliance.
Once that topic had been discussed, the response was that this has been mentioned for many years, but never explained so clearly and in such detail, now that they were aware exact- ly how and why it is such an issue, a promise was made to review this matter.
MAY 2022 WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TO RESPOND? LACK OF MoT
I recently attended a local authority working group where the subject of vehicles not being issued with an MoT certifi- cate, only a compliance document was raised. I spent a good ten minutes or so explaining how many issues this caused including:
• Lack of vehicle maintenance history (MoT history checks) that the public could access online which then devalues the car when it comes to trying to sell it, or even trade it in against a new vehicle.
• The inability to tax a vehicle online • The risk of a vehicle being flagged up by ANPR cameras
• The allegations from the public that a vehicle should not be on the road, as they have checked online, and the vehicle does not even have an MoT!
• The fact that vehicle recovery agencies and breakdown services such as the RAC and AA could, and in many cases actually do, refuse to recover a vehicle as it does not have a valid MoT and a host of other issues raised
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