The Motorcycle Training Group is blaming the Home Affairs Committee for a lack of support and is withdrawing its service, although committee members say they have done their utmost to help.Every new motorcycle rider must attend the basic training course before they can have a licence issued enabling them to use a scooter or motorbike on the roads.But without the course, anyone wishing to ride in Jersey will have to pay to travel to the UK and attend a course there before being given a new licence.Peter Mercer, spokesperson for the MTG said: ‘The scheme was brought in eight years ago and it is the only place you can learn to drive in the Island.
We had been using the d’Hautrée playground at the weekends but cannot use it during the week, which we been requesting for some time.’We have been asking for some help with this for a long time because there is an eight-week backlog of people waiting to get onto the course and we cannot cope with those numbers.
We need more facilities to make this course meet the massive demand and because so many letters and questions to the Home Affairs Committee have gone unanswered we are stopping the service.’He added that the £85 charge for the course was to cover costs.Senator Wendy Kinnard, president of Home Affairs, said: ‘The committee worked really hard to try to get extra facilities for some mid-week sessions and we have written to Education on a number of occasions and also looked at using the area behind the western fire station, but that was not big enough.’They are a private company the we have been trying very hard to meet their expectations but sometimes feel their demands are over and above what we can provide.’
