A BRADFORD driving test centre has ranked as one of the hardest in the region to pass from.

A Freedom of Information request revealed the number of ‘multiple testers’ - those who needed more than five attempts to pass - there were at each testing centre in the country for 2018-19.

The national average is 1.82 per cent, while the figure stands at 1.46 per cent and 2.17 per cent for males and females respectively. The Heaton centre, on Farfield Street, ranks fifth in Yorkshire and the Humber, with 2.53 per cent of people needing to take more than five tests. That figure stands at 1.49 per cent for males and 3.48 per cent for females.

The test centre was recently brought into the spotlight due to the length of time people are having to wait - around 16 weeks - for re-tests due to backlogs.

Meanwhile, Steeton’s test centre comes in at sixth, with 2.33 per cent taking more than five tests, while the Bradford Thornbury centre fares slightly better at number 16, where the figure is 1.7 per cent.

The Heckmondwike test centre, across the border in Kirklees, tops the regional list.

Abdul Rehman,chairman of the Bradford Driving Instructors Association, said he believes people do not spend enough time on preparing for the test before taking it.

He said more people use the Heaton test centre, but felt Thornbury was the harder route due to fast moving traffic in the area.

The research, carried out by Go Compare, shows nearly four per cent of people took more than five attempts to pass their test, with the figure standing at 5.46 per cent for females and 2.15 per cent for males.

Go Compare says drivers who take multiple tests are more likely to cause accidents.

The firm’s research highlights that drivers who take five or more test attempts are over three times more likely to make a claim for self-inflicted damage and are also more likely to make a claim for causing an accident with another vehicle.

“On average, just 12.5 per cent of survey respondents who passed their driving test the first time had made a claim, while a significant 24.8 per cent of five plus attempt respondents had made claims for the same errors,” says the comparison website.

On top of this, it says that more than 60 per cent of people who took five or more attempts have had driving convictions in comparison to one in three people who pass the first time.

The research shows that 4.7 per cent of people who passed their test first time have a conviction for failing to comply with traffic signals, in comparison to 22.9 per cent of those who had taken more than five attempts.

And for using a mobile phone while driving, 2.4 per cent of people had passed first time, in comparison to 15.6 per cent who had taken five or more attempts. The first-time pass rate for Yorkshire and the Humber in 2017-18 was 45 per cent - a 0.5 per cent increase from 2014-15.