Thanks, Diddly. Things went well, more about that below!
Sounds familiar... Still not heard about mine after the Dr made a mistake
Last year (October I think) my licence was also not renewed. I spoke to my doctor who investigated and found that in response to the DVLA's health form they (the doctors) had put that I had had no hypos where I needed help, and she wrote to DVLA to put them right. Since then it has taken months and months of form filling, rudeness from the DVLA call centre and waiting until I finally got my licence back two weeks ago! My car has been sitting outside, fully insured, taxed etc., developing a flat battery, during this time.
They were SO rude at the call centre!! I know it is not their individual fault (and I said so), but they seemed quite amazed that I was expecting them to speed up their tortoise-speed process as they were at fault in the first place!
I hope you get it back quicker than I did, and I've signed your petition!
Unfortunately I've heard this all too often. Some have questioned whether it is better to have drivers taken off the road first THEN have the argument afterwards however, my argument is that it takes the argument far too long to resolve. Within this space of time: money is wasted, livelihoods potentially lost, life is made more difficult than it has to be etc. As far as I am concerned, if the DVLA are so concerned for the safety of drivers as they say they are then the argument should not even have to occur in the first place. When the application form is sent in, the relevant person's consultant/GP should be contacted by the DVLA to establish if the person is medically fit to drive. This doesn't take very much time with regards to either of the parties involved however, it does cost the DVLA money and unfortunately, I think this is why we face the problem.
Having drivers argue their case does not cost the DVLA anything, really. They do not have to phone around doctors surgeries or hospitals, they do not have to employ somebody to consult GP's/consultants etc. As I say though, the whole process makes life quite difficult for the driver. I'm glad to hear that you got your licence back, Alex, but your situation serves to illustrate the difficulties inflicted on others by this, to be quite frank, poorly constructed and implemented process. Thanks you very much for your support though and if you have a little time free (around 5 seconds, if that!) it would be much appreciated if you could share the petition with friends via. e-mail, Facebook, Twitter etc. The more awareness and exposure generated, the better for all of us!
With regards to petition progress, things have been going very well! I met with my local MP, Stephen Twigg, yesterday, to discuss a plan of action for how we can have this bill discussed by politicians who have the power to call for a reconsideration of the EU directive and the DVLA's interpretation of it. He fully backs my argument and has shared the petition on Twitter to give validity to his support. I do not have exact details of what is going to be done as the meeting was relatively quick and a lot was said however, Stephen's secretary, Kevin, has promised that he will send me the minutes of the meeting. I'll let you all know about what's in those minutes when I receive them on Monday. Needless to say, various MP's will be being contacted and we are attempting to push for a debate in parliament itself.
Also, George Howarth MP has written to me via. e-mail and also given me his full support. He has also offered his services in backing Stephen's actions but as parliamentary procedure dictates, he can not directly represent me as I am not one of his constituents. He is, however, a member of the all party parliamentary group for diabetes and will be bringing the matter and my petition to their attention. Furthermore, he will be circulating details of the petition to those he knows in the diabetes community. This is a tremendous help and also adds further support to my argument, as you can no doubt tell, i am ecstatic with regards to these developments and I am more confident than ever that we can change the situation to benefit all diabetic drivers across the country and potentially Europe.
I also posted a video update last night detailing other recent developments so if you have a chance to, please have a look at it, the petition site is here:
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/d ... -diabetics
Thank you all again for your support, signatures, sharing and hard work. We're starting to make some important headway with regards to this now so lets keep up the fight!
Best,
- Martyn