DEVON and Cornwall Police’s Road Safety Team have issued a plea for the region’s motorists to be more understanding of learner drivers out on the roads.

The force has said that a local driving instructor has expressed their concern at the treatment of learner drivers on the area’s roads.

A spokesperson from Devon and Cornwall Police’s Road Safety Team said: “We recently received correspondence from a registered driving instructor asking for an awareness message to be posted to highlight the difficulties faced by learner drivers and instructors.

“Everyone learned to drive at one time and can surely remember how difficult it seemed at the time. However, as we get more and more confident and competent in our driving, it's easy to forget those first few stressful lessons or maybe the worry of your first journey without an instructor sat next to you.”

Issues raised by the instructor include a lack consideration or patience, tailgating learners when they are driving at the limit, drivers intimidating learners and even instances of abuse.

The police spokesperson continued: “If this kind of behaviour is captured on dashcam, it can be submitted to the police via Operation Snap and action can be taken against the offending drivers.”

The force is now appealing to drivers to be more considerate towards those who are still learning their way around the road, and have reminded motorists that they were also in that position at one point in their life.

The spokesperson concluded: “Learner drivers don't deliberately make mistakes, or drive slowly to hold up other drivers. They are sometimes nervous or unsure at junctions and may take longer to pull out into a gap in traffic.

“We were all there at one time and it costs nothing to give them a little space and time.”