Driven to distraction: Region’s driving test hotspots are revealed

If you’re planning to take your driving test anytime soon, you might want to consider making the hop over the Welsh border to Llandrindod Wells.

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Where you take your test can make a big difference

Because more than three-quarters of learners who take their test at the driving test centre in Powys pass.

Yet in Wolverhampton, only 34.1 per cent are seen tearing up their learner plates in delight after taking their test. Nearby Featherstone is little better, with just 39 per cent of tests successfully negotiated.

New figures released by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency show the average pass rate for driving test centres across England and Wales is 46 per cent. But they also show that this figure masks huge variations between different test centres.

How the figures compare:

The toughest test centre in the country is The Pavilion in Birmingham. Whether it’s the busy Second City traffic that bamboozles learners, or a particularly stringent group of examiners, only 29 per cent of tests are completed successfully. Gairloch, in the Scottish Highlands, has the highest pass rate at 81 per cent.

The figures show that pass rates in the West Midlands are generally better than the national average, with Shropshire and Staffordshire coming out on top.

In Ludlow the pass rate is 52 per cent, slightly ahead of Cannock at 51 per cent, while in Lichfield and Stafford exactly half pass the test.

Shrewsbury and Whitchurch centres both have 49 per cent pass rates, followed by Dudley’s Lower Gornal test centre on 48 per cent, Oswestry at 47 per cent, and Telford at 46 per cent.