The Director of a garage claims that the Government’s plans to reduce the number of MOT tests could spell disaster for public safety.

Chris Smith,who runs the Ernick Motors in Elm Park Avenue, Elm Park argues that the proposals that could see the tests taking place every two years would be dangerous.

Chris Smith said: “I think it is going to affect people’s safety on the roads and on the pavements and I think it is a case where we need to get more people campaigning against it because if it does come into place it will spell disaster for a lot of people.”

As part of the new proposals by the Government, it would see the extension of a car’s first MOT from its third to its fourth birthday.

The move is thought to have been made in a bid to save motorists money because of the rising cost of petrol prices, but Chris argues that it means that there is a longer length of time before some cars are seen at a professional garage meaning that problems could go un noticed.

He said: “Its crazy because at the moment I get cars coming into the garage with problems wrong with their brakes and all four tyres are bad and they only chance that we get to pick up on these problems is because of the MOT, if that was allowed to happen every other year then things could go far longer without any noticing because some drivers have no idea how to check their cars.”

The MOT test was first introduced in the 1960s as a way of improving the safety of vehicles and it is a system that has since been adopted by other countries.

Chris argues that instead of concentrating on the MOT, one area of improvement could be the road tax disc.

Rainham and Dagenham MP Jon Cruddas is also set to raise the issue in Parliament to the Minister of Transport.