I read with great interest that MoT Centres may soon be replaced by private garages which will make your car fit for the road and then issue the certificate. I believe much of the UK and other countries, such as the Australia and the US, have such systems and they work well.

There is a strange atmosphere in MoT Centres with decent, responsible, tax-paying motorists often waiting in trepidation to find out whether or not their vehicle would get through.

Omagh MoT centre was particularly feared by motorists who drive older cars.

The inspections were unduly rigorous. Good, well-maintained family cars, driven by sensible middle-aged parents, who naturally will take every precaution to ensure that their precious cargo – their families – are safe, were failed, while newer speedsters driven by the not-always-wise youth would pass.

Did that make motoring safer? Did it heck. The vast majority of road traffic accidents have little or nothing to do with the condition of a vehicle: speed, drink, drugs, stupidity and carelessness are the prime causes.

Forgetting the process itself, there is something galling about paying taxes to employ people who make our already complicated and stressful lives more difficult. In any case, the new system will take the lottery factor out of motoring and may create employment for those trained to work on motor vehicles.

AP Mullan