Reports suggest dealers in Northern Ireland are facing problems registering vehicles following the transfer of the Driver Vehicle Agance to Wales in July.

According to the BBC, dealers are facing long waits to get tax and local registration plates for English cars since responsibility for administration moved from Coleraine to Swansea last month, with some worry that it could affect sales.

William McCausland from Fonacab and Crawford Clarke cars told the BBC: "We are having problems every day. Most of the cars have to go out with English number plates.

"The customers do not like the look of the English plates. It has become a torture.

"To tax the vehicle used to take an hour or so. But we have one vehicle that has been at the bottom of our yard since July 30. We were on the phone and they still cannot even find the documents that were sent to the DVLA centre in Swansea."

Individual drivers have also been stranded as post offices have been unable to process road tax renewals because of computer problems, says the report.

A DVLA spokeswoman told the BBC: "The recent changes to vehicle registration and licensing services in Northern Ireland have been delivered in full consultation with the Driver and Vehicle Agency and stakeholders in Northern Ireland.

"We worked closely to address any anomalies identified between the two systems and as a result, the majority of Northern Ireland records were successfully merged with DVLAs on 21 July.

"However, there have been some technical difficulties for a small number of vehicle records that have migrated from Northern Ireland, which has resulted in a small number of customers having difficulty taxing their vehicle, particularly if they have recently changed their registration number.

"We are working to resolve this issue quickly for our customers and apologise for any inconvenience caused."