Grants for drivers (From Yeovil Express)

Grants for drivers

10:48am Saturday 17th February 2007

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SOMERSET County Council is supporting a scheme which offers newly qualified drivers grants towards the cost of more advanced training has been so successful that it is to be extended.

Almost 500 drivers have taken Pass Plus tuition under the scheme which was launched last autumn with the aim of reducing the number of car crashes involving newly-qualified drivers.

Pass Plus is an excellent scheme and we welcome the extra funding which will enable more newly qualified drivers to benefit from this additional valuable road experience and so reduce their chances of being involved in a collision

Somerset road safety advisor David Flack

The initiative has proved so popular that extra funding has now been provided so another 130 drivers can take the opportunity to have six further driving sessions, with a qualified instructor, to gain experience of aspects of driving not always covered when learning to drive.

The Driving Standard Agency's Pass Plus scheme gives the new drivers the chance to experience motorway driving, under instruction, for the first time since tearing up their L plates. Other sessions cover driving at night, on dual carriageways and on town and country roads.

Anyone who has passed their test since October 1, 2006, is being offered a £75 grant towards the normal £130 cost of taking Pass Plus with a DSA approved instructor.

The initiative was launched by road safety teams of local authorities across Avon and Somerset, including Somerset County Council, and is being funded by Speed Choice, the educational arm of the Safety Camera Partnership.

The grants are initially available to anyone living within these local authority areas and the Pass Plus course can be taken within six months of passing the driving test.

Application forms can by obtained from Jenny Wood, Road Safety Team, Bath & North East Somerset Council, Riverside, Temple Street, Keynsham, Somerset BS31 1LA.

Somerset road safety advisor David Flack said: "Pass Plus is an excellent scheme and we welcome the extra funding which will enable more newly qualified drivers to benefit from this additional valuable road experience and so reduce their chances of being involved in a collision.

"Newly qualified drivers are more likely to have a collision in the two years after passing their test than at any other time in their life."Driver education is an essential element in the fight to achieve casualty reduction."

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