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As most of you probably already know, all 39 DVLA Local Offices are to close by the end of this year; our local branch in Peterborough is among the second batch of closures and will shut its doors for the last time on Saturday, November 30. I’ve been a pretty regular customer there these past 20 years; annual trade plate renewal, change of taxation class for ex-police vehicles, registration of ex-MoD cars and numerous other registration-related matters that were a bit complex and consequently needed a bit of face-to-face contact with someone who actually worked for DVLA rather than an agency on its behalf. I can see that there’s less work now for local offices than there was, say, ten years ago. Traditionally the biggest job has been registering new cars for dealers. There’s now no reason why this can’t all be handled centrally from Swansea using online links. Similarly, change of taxation class can be handled by Post Office branches; in fact that’s how it’s now done. However there are still some things that really do require face-to-face contact, either because that’s the best way of doing it or to prevent possible fraud. For example, number plate transfers. Most of these are now a simple paper exercise. However DVLA reserves the right to inspect donor or recipient vehicles, and the possibility of this happening has to be some kind of incentive not to make a fraudulent application. Where will any inspections take place after the local office network has gone, bearing in mind that government-owned Goods Vehicle Testing Stations are also being phased out? And who will vet applications for new trade plates, issue of which is at present completely discretionary and dependent on whether a locally-based DVLA employee thinks the applicant is genuinely in the trade or has a genuine need? Then there’s the process of one-off registrations of imported vehicles…