Licence renewal - DVLA challenges

Apologies this is a wee bit long.

I thought it may be helpful to relate some very recent experiences with the DVLA.

Sadly, I am not in the first flush of youth these days.

Three years ago, I had the misfortune to tear the retina in my left eye. No particular reason other than it can just happen. It was fixed with laser treatment at Northampton General Hospital Eye Clinic and a little bit of cryopexy (freezing) at the John Radcliffe in Oxford. Both were quite excellent.

Roll on a year and I thought something wasn’t quite right so popped into Northampton General again to find out I had a self-repaired retinal tear in my right eye. That needed a little bit of structural support with the laser again. The paperwork that came with the second visit sadly diagnosed it as a ’Pan Retinal Photo Coagulation’ which was, unknowingly to me, an incorrect diagnosis and should have been a ’Retinopexy’ which didn’t attract the need to formally advise the DVLA. There were instructions that I must inform the DVLA which I did.

The DVLA became quite stroppy with me and said I had to have a peripheral vision test, at an optician if their choice, within 14 days. By then I was helping with a pair of historic working boats in Warwickshire with no access to a vehicle. I made an appointment with Specsavers in Northampton for the latest date I could and passed easily after returning early from working the boats. Specsavers said that the data created from my visit was theirs so there was a little bit of discussion whilst they eventually agreed that the data was personal to me and that the DVLA had a copy.

I eventually received an email from the DVLA saying I could continue to drive - phew!

Roll on to June of this year when I was within 90 days of my 70th and I applied online to renew my licence. Pretty straightforward until it came to medical conditions where I reminded them (as they probably had it on my record anyway) that I had previously had retinal tears in each eye but, and this is the important bit, there was no opportunity to expand on that such as:

    1. no recurrence
    1. visit optician regularly
    1. and so on.

Last Saturday (4-July-2020) I received a letter from the DVLA with a number of forms to complete and a covering letter dated eight (8) days previously telling me I needed have responded and the forms to be with them by 10-Jul-20 otherwise my licence would be cancelled and my application revoked.

After picking myself up I wrote to my MP (Andrea Leadsom) complaining about the high-handed attitude and expressing concern that I would not receive my licence by the expiry date of my current licence. I had in fact applied 77 days before my licence expired. I also filled in the forms and wrote to Julie Lennard the Chief Exec of the DVLA as this was the second occasion I had, what I considered, pretty second-rate treatment from the DVLA.

On Monday I was copied into an email from my MP’s staff which was sent to the Transport Ministers at Westminster which effectively said ‘sort this out’. I must say you should not need to bring in the big guns but looking online the views of the DVLA, especially the medical group, are pretty poor (that’s an understatement) so I felt justified in going via my MP.

On Tuesday I received a phone call from the DVLA saying my renewed licence would be in the post that day. That’s a good result but I will say again that it shouldn’t need time from Westminster to make that happen.

I live in a small village with no busses, no doctor, no shops of any description and no ATM machine so driving is pretty much required.

So why post this? Well, I expect not all of us are in the first flush of youth, some of us may suffer from medical conditions and at the same time find a driving licence is almost a necessity. My life revolves a lot around what happens in the village and I would find it difficult to leave because I couldn’t do my shopping, visit the doctor and so on without either help from locals or a driving licence. And it is also to encourage anyone experiencing difficulties to stand up to the DVLA - they have pretty basic IT systems that cannot link your personal data to an online renewal application which, to me, is a very basic requirement.

I also found out that if your licence is with the DVLA for renewal you can continue to drive after the expiry date under Section 88 of the Road Traffic Act for a maximum of 12 months or until it is either renewed, revoked or renewed with conditions by the DVLA; something I had to find out for myself and not information offered by the DVLA. It’s also a material fact that your insurers need to formally be advised of.

At the moment I am looking forward to 3 more years, at least, of driving my MX-5 RF.

If I can help anyone in a similar situation, please do contact me.

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Thanks for sharing, a good set of things to consider, great to hear you’re enjoying your RF!

Hi Kathryn,
Sorry to hear of your problems with the DVLA but glad that you are sorted and mobile again.
I am approaching the second three year renewal of my licence this Sunday and having heard nothing from them I went online and processed a renewal last Friday morning, I was very surprised to receive my new licence in Mondays post.
I guess it just depends on which desk your application lands on and what sort of mood they are in when they deal with it.
Drive safe
Dave

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