Bridgend College’s collaboration with the DVLA

Bridgend College were thrilled to welcome Wilf Morgan, Head of Enforcement Operations, and Bethan Beasley, National Wheel Clamping Manager from the DVLA to our Bridgend Campus on Friday 24th April to meet with staff and students who have benefited from the donation of confiscated vehicles from the DVLA.

"We are delighted to be able to assist the Motor Vehicle Department at Bridgend College by providing the students with vehicles to work on. Most of the owners whose vehicles are caught without tax pay up, but a sizeable minority never show up. This may have something to do with the DVLA findings that over 70 per cent of the occupants of untaxed vehicles have criminal records and that many of these vehicles are not insured." says Bethan Beasley, National Wheel Clamping Manager, DVLA

Last September, the Western Mail ran a feature about the cars that are confiscated by the DVLA due to non purchase of car tax, many of which are good quality vehicles and are issued to the Police and Fire & Rescue Service for training purposes.

This article was spotted by Alun Shorney, Motor Vehicle Lecturer at Bridgend College, who contacted Bethan Beasley, DVLA National Wheel Clamping Manager, to ask if vehicles could be donated to Bridgend College.

The Motor Vehicle Department at the College provides training to full and part-time students aged over 16, along with school pupils aged 14 -16 under the 14-19 Learning Skills Network. However, until recently, staff and students have had to rely on local garages donating vehicles and purchasing old cars from scrap merchants, but these are generally so old that they do not provide the up to date learning resources required by our students.

The DVLA agreed and on Friday 20th February the College took receipt of a Freelander, Citroen Xsara Picasso, Vauxhall Vectra and Renault Scenic. These vehicles will be used for six months and then returned to the DVLA and a further four vehicles donated.

As Alun Shorney, Lecturer, explains:
"This is an ideal partnership for us as within six months the vehicles are worn out by the students! This is because they are repeatedly working on them, for example removing and replacing the brake pads, which in normal practice would only happen 3 or 4 times in a car's lifetime. It also gives students the opportunity to work on a variety of makes and models of cars, and to appreciate the complexity of the modern day motor vehicle industry with the computerised systems in today's cars. "