NORTH Shropshire MP Helen Morgan has said that she has secured a meeting with the minister who could hold the key to a new test centre in Whitchurch.

After the RAAC crisis put paid to plans to host the new driving facility at Whitchurch’s Civic Centre for a peppercorn rate, the town council and Mrs Morgan, along with the DVSA, are now looking at new options.

The MP says that Levelling Up Minister Jacob Young MP has agreed to meet with her over the future of Whitchurch Civic Centre and Whitchurch driving test centre.

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The MP has previously cited the ‘huge backlog’ of driving tests in the county as behind her commitment to campaigning efforts to lobby the DVSA and Ministers over the driving test centre.

Mrs Morgan said: “If the Government is serious about levelling up areas like north Shropshire, it should take issues like the need for both a Civic Centre and a driving test Centre in Whitchurch seriously.

“I am really pleased to have secured a meeting with the minister to discuss this issue in more detail and to push for progress.

“A town the size of Whitchurch in a rural area like north Shropshire needs a driving test facility to cut the huge backlog in tests and give our young people the chance to get on the road without an L plate.

“It also needs its Library and civic space urgently re-opened.”

In the House of Commons, the MP implored Mr Young to consider the town for Levelling Up money to help it deal with the RAAC crisis.

She said: “Whitchurch in my constituency hasn't received any Levelling Up funding, whether from the Levelling Up Fund itself, the Towns Fund, or the Future High Streets Fund and now it finds itself without a civic centre because of dangerous RAAC.

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 “That means it's lost its library, its registry office and its soon-to-be-reopened driving test centre following a long campaign by myself and others.

“Will the Minister meet with me to work out what we can do to put this important building back into the heart of Whitchurch?”

Mrs Morgan has been a prominent campaigner in the bid to ensure a test centre remains in the town for learner drivers.