A DRIVING school marked 30 years in business by helping to teach more than 7,000 pupils in one year.

Benson School of Motoring, based in Braintree, celebrated the milestone anniversary in 2017.

During the year the firm, which covers north Essex, Chelmsford and Brentwood, had 7,104 pupils on its books, up by 1,600 on the previous year.

Owner John Benson said it was fantastic to mark the 30th year of trading.

He said: “We are a Braintree based company however we cover all of East Anglia with our now 144 instructors and 2017 was the 30th anniversary of commencing trading.

“I was born and bred in Braintree and when I started we only had three cars.

“And then it came down to just me at one stage, but 30 years on and the business has really grown.

“Last year was our best year yet and it goes to show we care about our learners.”

Benson School of Motoring said it values its students and teaches them to drive in a way which sets drivers up for life.

Mr Benson said: “Everyone wants to pass the test.

“But at Benson we teach them to drive safely, and the test is secondary but we do have high pass rates.

“Pupils are going to be on the road for 60, maybe 70 years, so it is important they are set up to learn for life.

“So that’s why quality is really important, we pride ourselves on quality.

“That means our cars have to be as clean as possible, we train our instructors really well, and we get around three thousand of those seven thousand pupils on recommendations from friends alone.”

In December the driving test was changed by the DVLA and now sees Sat Navs used.

Mr Benson added: “It’s about the same length. All instructors now have satellite navigation system, also known as a Global Positioning System (GPS) which they use in their cars.

“But we want to reassure both the parents of younger learners and older learners we are safe and we explain everything on our lessons.”