The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) said that the centre in High Street, Spalding, would close by the end of September and tests would be moved to a £1.5m multi-purpose centre in Peterborough or to existing centres at Boston or Wisbech.

Mark Cherry, who owns Mark One School of Motoring, says learners would waste hours travelling to and from Peterborough to prepare for different driving conditions they would encounter on their test.

He said: "You can't just expect them to go down a slip road onto a dual carriageway for the first time on their test.

"The bigger roundabouts and heavier, faster moving traffic is found in Peterborough but it involves an hour of travel and 40 miles just to get there and back.

"It might make some people think 'I won't bother learning to drive'.

"A lot of learners are at school and slot in an hour during the day but they are simply not going to be able to fit in two."

Mark is concerned about the impact the closure may have on business.

He believes drivers may catch the train to use the cheaper option of a Peterborough instructor rather than pay for an extra hour's tuition just to get to and from the city.

In addition Spalding area instructors would face extra mileage costs and would have to replace their cars more often if they had to travel to Peterborough.

The DSA is opening new centres as part of a safety initiative to cope with a new motorcycle test, which will come into force on September 29.

A spokesman said: "There is a major need for these new centres because we are extremely concerned about motorcyclists dying on our roads.

"To make the centres financially viable we are having to run car tests from them as well. This will mean closing existing centres which are near to multi-purpose centres."

n Chris Page (20), landlord of The Fenway pub in Cowbit Road, Spalding, said: "Costs are going up and lessons will be expensive. Instead of there being one-hour lessons learners are going to have to pay for two hours.

"Some people just don't have the money to spend.

"The population of Spalding is growing.

"This is not a good time to be closing Spalding centre.

"Going to Peterborough takes a lot of time out of the day and many people just don't have that time."