Revealed: The areas with the highest number of drivers with penalty points

Of the 387,951 drivers in Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin, a total of 23,078 drivers have got penalty points on their licence.

The figures have come from regtransfers.co.uk which analysed official Department for Transport data.

They show the area with the highest proportion of drivers who have penalty points is the TF8 postcode, within Telford & Wrekin.

The area covers Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale, Coalport, and Jackfield, with 9.4 per cent of drivers having been issued with penalty points.

TF8 is swiftly followed by Broseley as the second highest in the region, where nine per cent of drivers have found themselves being awarded points for a driving infringement.

The third highest in the region, and the highest in the Shropshire area, is the SY14 postcode which covers Malpas in the north of the county.

The figures show that nine per cent of drivers in the area have been caught by police for breaking driving laws, while the fourth highest in the area was TF7 – made up of Madeley, Woodside, Sutton Hill, Halesfield, where the figure was 7.8 per cent.

The second Shropshire postcode to make up the top five was SY13 – Whitchurch, where 6.9 per cent of drivers have penalty points.

Surprise

The lowest area across both post codes is SY20, covering Machynlleth towards the Welsh Coast, where just 4.4 per cent of drivers have points.

Ironbridge Councillor Nicola Lowery said the figures had come as a surprise but said they could be down to a proactive approach over safety in the town.

She said: “We do try and do quite a lot of speed monitoring in the gorge. Due to its historic nature we do try to be proactive.

“We have a lot of people visiting, a lot of families walking around enjoying the delights of the gorge so we want people to to drive safely.”

Penalty points go on a driver’s record and remain there for between four and 11 years, depending on the severity of the offence.

Building up too many points can even see drivers losing their licence.

Drivers can also be disqualified if they collect 12 penalty points over a period of three years.

Across the UK racking up penalty points costs drivers more than £132million a year in higher insurance premiums, according to the Institute of Advanced Motorists. A total of 1.45million people caught committing driving offences opted to take part in retraining courses just to avoid accumulating points – and hefty fines.

Despite this, more than 2.6million currently have points on their licences, based on the latest Department for Transport figures. TS2 in Cleveland, North Yorkshire has the highest rate of motorists with points.

Of the 353 qualified motorists living in the area, 48 of them have points on their licence - working out at 13.6 per cent.