Removing Abandoned vehicles

Abandoned vehicles are expensive to remove, have an adverse effect on the environment and look unsightly, lowering the quality of life in neighbourhoods. They quickly become dangerous when vandalised or used as skips and filled with hazardous waste. There is also a risk of explosion or injury from dangerous fluids, which leak and can catch fire or run into the water stream. Abandoned vehicles are often set on fire, endangering lives, property and the environment.

The national picture

The 2004/05 Local Environmental Quality Survey of England (LEQSE)
found that, of 119 vehicles abandoned on local authority land, the largest concentration – more than a quarter of all abandoned vehicles – were discovered to be in high density housing areas, closely followed by areas of low density private and social housing. This report is available to view at
[www.encams.org]

The End of Life Vehicle Directive

(ELVD) sets out procedures for recycling and re-using end of life vehicles and their components, reducing waste. The End of Life Vehicles Regulations 2003 transposed most of the requirements of the ELVD, including the new standards for authorised treatment facilities (ATFs), the Certificate of Destruction (COD) and reduction in heavy metals in new vehicles. The producer obligations mean that from 2007, vehicle manufacturers or importers must make available an ‘adequate’ network of facilities so that final owners can have their vehicles taken back free.

Enforcement

The Clean Neighbourhood and Environment Act 2005 gives local authorities the power to remove abandoned cars from the streets immediately and creates two new offences to help local authorities deal with nuisance parking.

Nuisance parking

In busy residential areas parking is often at a premium. It can be a nuisance and an obstruction if the street is used as a place to sell or repair vehicles as part of a business.

The offence

Selling vehicles on a road

– CNEA 2005, Section 3
It is an offence to sell or offer for sale two or more vehicles on a road or roads within 500m of each other. The only exception is if a person can prove to the satisfaction of the court that they were not acting for the purposes of a business of selling motor vehicles.

Repairing Vehicles on a Road

– CNEA 2005, Section 4
It is an offence to carry out repairs, maintenance, servicing, improvement or dismantling of a vehicle on a road in the course of a business or for gain or reward. However, private repairs are covered by the offence if they give reasonable cause for annoyance to people in the vicinity. There are specific exemptions for repairs arise from a breakdown or emergency and that are carried out within 72 hours of that incident.