Abandoned Cars Amnesty

A quarter of people think abandoned and burnt out cars are a big problem in their neighbourhood*, according to the RAC Foundation today Monday 17th January. However, abandoned vehicles could soon be a thing of the past. The Foundation is supporting provisions in the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Bill and the launch of the ENCAMS two-week amnesty on abandoned vehicles to tackle these problems.

The amnesty organised by ENCAMS, starts today and will run for two weeks during which period, over 190 councils in England will be offering to collect and dispose of any vehicle which the owner is planning to scrap, in an attempt to rid the country of the blight of abandoned vehicles. The campaign will save local authorities millions of pounds in recovery costs and will ensure that vehicles don’t end up abandoned, and targets for other anti-social behaviour such as vandalism, arson and theft.

The scale of the abandoned vehicles problem is huge:

• Over 300,000 vehicles are abandoned nationwide very year. A further one million are uninsured and untaxed for more than three months, and are likely to be abandoned in the future.
• Investigating and removing nuisance vehicles currently costs local authorities £26 million a year.
• Vehicle arson costs £230 million a year to clean up.
• Failure to tax vehicles costs £93 million in lost revenue.
• Unlicensed and uninsured drivers add between £30 and £60 to the insurance premiums of other motorists.

The Foundation also supports measures in the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Bill which is currently progressing through Parliament, that give local authorities new powers to deal with abandoned cars and nuisance vehicles.

Measures include powers to tackle abandoned vehicles by making it an offence to abandon a motor vehicle and giving local authorities the power to issue fixed penalty notices of £200 to offenders. The Bill also allows local authorities to immediately remove and destroy nuisance vehicles. The Foundation supports these measures as they will enable local authorities to immediately remove dangerous or burnt out vehicles, and will also prevent anti-social behaviour such as vandalism and arson by ensuring the swift removal and disposal of vehicles.

Abandoned cars fact file:

• Ealing Council responds to some 1200 reports of abandoned vehicles every month, leading to 400 removals.
• In 2004 Darlington Council spent £60,000 removing and disposing of 1000 cars that had been left abandoned by their owners.
• Between April 2003 and January 2004, almost 2,000 vehicles were found abandoned or burnt out in Swansea.
• In Peterborough and Cambridgeshire there are on average 9,600 vehicles reported abandoned each year, 4100 of which are removed for destruction. This costs residents £300,000 annually.

Residents and motorists can report abandoned cars by contacting their local council, giving details of the vehicle’s location, condition, registration, how long it has been there, and whether it is taxed. The police should be contacted only if the vehicle is abandoned in a dangerous place or is causing an obstruction.

Edmund King, Executive Director of the RAC Foundation said:

"The RAC Foundation is pleased to see that the Government is committed to tackling the problem of abandoned vehicles through giving local authorities powers to seize and destroy nuisance vehicles and also encouraging motorists to dispose of their vehicles responsibly.

"Illegally abandoned cars are not only an eyesore, an environmental and social problem, but they are a potential death trap for children who play in them.

"Some of our roads now have the appearance of Steptoe’s back yard. Dumped cars soon become the targets of DIY mechanics who help themselves to anything from seats to wheels. The dumping of one car seems to attract others.

"We encourage people to utilise the two-week amnesty offered to them by councils, and get rid of their unwanted vehicles free of charge. Motorists should not just "dump the sump" and leave their waste to be cleared by others."

*Figures taken from the British Crime Survey reveal that one in four people think abandoned and burnt out cars are a very big or fairly big problem where they live.