Driving instructors 'threatened' by residents fed up of a rise in learners

Tyne and Wear driving instructors say they are being physically and verbally threatened and abused as tensions with Sunderland residents have escalated following the closure of South Tyneside Driving Test Centre.

- by Neil Fatkin

The centre, which was based on Jarrow's Bede Industrial Estate, was closed in 2022.

Instructors from Sunderland and South Tyneside Drivers Association say this has “doubled” the number of learners now heading through to Sunderland’s test centre on Riverbank Road, as instructors look to familiarise students with the roads on which they are now examined.

Instructors say the increased volume of learner drivers on the surrounding roads looking to practise manoeuvres has led to increasingly aggressive conflicts with local residents.

Top Gun Driving School instructor and spokesperson for the Sunderland and South Tyneside Driving Association, Vikki Holt said: “Since the South Tyneside test centre closed, you have now basically got two boroughs worth of drivers practising on the same Sunderland roads.