BUDDING bikers might be given more time to prove their driving ability at the Kassam Stadium, if plans to keep a test school at the site go ahead.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency currently uses parts of the car park to the west of the Oxford United home ground on Grenoble Road as a testing area for people learning to drive motorbikes.

If the DVSA is not allowed to continue, people might have to travel to Swindon if they want to be tested for a motorbike driving licence, a report to Oxford City Council said.

The council’s east area planning committee, due to meet on Wednesday night, will discuss whether or not to renew the DVSA’s ability to test bikers at the stadium.

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The licence was first granted in 2008 and was extended for three years in 2016.

Approximately 900 motorcycle tests take place on the site each year at the moment, and the government agency has said it would like to carry on with the same number in the future.

This is the equivalent of two or three tests on an average day.

There were no objections to renewing the DVSA’s use of the car park, but Oxfordshire County Council’s highways team said the car park should not be used for testing on match days.

The DVSA would only used the car park from 8am until 8pm, Monday to Friday, and would also make sure not to operate on match days.

The council report said the noise from motorbikes could be heard from nearby hotels, but this would not be of concern because of the daytime operating hours proposed by the DVSA.

There would be very little building work or physical change to the car park, according to the council report, with some old tarmac replaced and a mossy stretch of tarmac scraped clean.

Two driving instructors would also be based at the Kassam Stadium in a first floor office on testing days.

There would also be a ground floor storage room for the DVSA.

Guidance to local councils across the UK says they should not extend or renew temporary planning applications again and again.

But the report added the council should ‘investigate alternative sites’ in Oxford for the DVSA over the next three years before the agency runs out of time on the temporary application again.

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According to the DVSA, there has been a pass rate of 73.7 per cent at the Kassam Stadium in Oxford in the 2019/20 financial year so far.

Out of the 860 people who took their motorcycle test in Oxford, 634 of them passed.

Meanwhile, at the next nearest centre in Swindon there has been a pass rate of 75.5 per cent in the year so far.

A total of 432 people took their motorcycle test there, with 326 of them passing.

The planning committee is recommended by council staff to approve the plan and give the DVSA another three years on the stadium site.

The east area planning committee meets on Wednesday at 6pm in the Old Library at Oxford Town Hall.

See planning reference 19/02453/FUL at the Oxford City Council website for more information about the application.