KENDAL has topped the table of national driving test pass rates for the fourth year running.

Over the past 12 months 70.8 per cent of learner drivers have passed their test in the town – well above the national average of 47.1 per cent.

Kendal has been named as the top test centre for pass rates every year since 2011, although this is its highest percentage of passes yet.

The figures, released by the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency, showed that Cumbrians were putting the rest of the UK to shame, with Barrow-in-Furness in second place (pass rate 68.3 per cent).

Kendal driving instructor Glyn Jamieson said Kendal’s high pass rate was largely down to the fact that most learners in the area have professional lessons.

“Because it’s a little bit more of an affluent area, people here are more willing to have the right number of lessons.

“It’s very rare that I go to the test centre and see someone in their own car.

“I think sometimes in other places people are paying to pass their test whereas here people are paying to learn to drive.”