Where drivers have of a struggle to pass first time
REVEALED: TEST CENTRES WITH LOWEST AND HIGHEST SUCCESS RATES
DRIVERS in Salford and Cheetham Hill have among the worst records in Britain when it comes to passing their test first time.
Official data shows a total of 423 people took their practical test for the first time at the Salford fire station test centre in 2017/18.
Only 137 of those were successful – a pass rate of just 32.4 per cent.
Only three of the 423 candidates managed to pass with zero faults.
In Cheetham Hill, 3,151 people took their practical test for the first time during the financial year.
Of those, 1,037 – or just 32.9pc – emerged with a pass.
Only a handful of test centres in the whole of Britain had a worse record.
Worst of all was the Erith test centre in east London, where 28pc of firsttime candidates managed to pass. The national average was 46.7pc. The Hyde test centre had the best record in the region.
Some 58.6pc of first-timers managed to pass there in 2017/18.
In Cheadle it was 57.7pc, in Bolton 51.6pc, in Sale 51pc, in Atherton 50.7pc, in West Didsbury 45pc, in Bredbury 40.6pc, in Bury 36.9pc, in Rochdale 36.1pc and in Chadderton 34.9pc. The data was published by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency. It strongly suggests that taking your test in a sparsely populated area, with far quieter roads, gives you a real edge when it comes to passing first time. The Golspie test centre in the Highlands of Scotland had the best record of all. While only 54 people took their first practical test there in 2017/18, 43 of them (79.6pc) were successful. The test centre at Crieff, in Perth and Kinross, had the second best record in Britain in 2017/18. Some 74.3pc of first-time test-takers managed to pass. Inveraray (73.8pc) was next, with Llandrindod Wells in Wales (73.4pc) the only non-Scottish entry in the top 10. Across Britain as a whole, the overall pass rate for first-time test-takers dropped slightly from 47.1pc in 2016/17 to 46.7pc in 2017/18. While 50.4pc of men were successful at their first attempt, that fell to 43.1pc for women.