‘Putting CBTs out to tender will not reduce waiting list’
PUTTING the contract for compulsory basic training tests out to tender will not reduce a lengthy waiting list, according to an instructor at the centre of a dispute over the training.
Tom Burnett has been offering motorcycle training through his business Advanced Riding Training since 2014. Towards the end of 2020 he was engaged to offer CBT courses on a rolling six-month contract to help to reduce waiting times which, given Covid lockdowns, had extended to the best part of a year.
He was concerned that he was going to be stopped from continuing to offer the service, but Environment & Infrastructure Committee president Lindsay de Sausmarez has said Mr Burnett may be allowed to continue if demand remains high.
Given Mr Burnett’s claim that the delays are longer than six months – disputing Deputy De Sausmarez’s information of 10-12 weeks – that could well be likely.
Mr Burnett said that the E&I president’s letter to deputies to clarify the situation ‘said nothing’. The fact that the contract to offer CBT courses is going out to tender soon, highlighted in the letter, would have no impact on waiting lists, he said.
‘They’ve been telling me that since 2014 and it will do nothing to reduce the waiting list,’ he said.
He said Traffic & Highway Services was ‘muddling along, hoping things would change’, and disputed why there should be a single operator licensed for CBT.
He did not see why the contract for CBT training should rest with a single operator and said the demand was there for more.
Mr Burnett said that initially his bookings were referred to him by GMTS but then he was asked to take his own bookings, which meant he had to invest in his own website despite no guarantee of courses after June. He notified T&HS and GMTS of all bookings because he said he was aware of people booking with both providers to try to jump the queue.
Mr Burnett said he wrote to States members with his concerns, but just four deputies responded.
