COVENTRY has been named as the ‘abandoned vehicle capital of the UK’ (outside London).
The data comes from Scrap Car Comparison which submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to local councils.
The research revealed there were 1,898 abandoned cars reported to Coventry City Council between September 2022 and September 2023. That made the city the highest in the country outside London.
Second was Brighton and Hove Council with 1,889 abandoned cars reported and, in third, was Leicester (1,765).
The highest number of dumped cars was in London – the borough of Bromley had 2,239 reports made. Enfield (1,998 reports) and Hillingdon (1,914 reports).
Overall across the UK, there were 53,794 cars abandoned between September 2022 and September 2023. Interestingly, the results also revealed January 2023 was the month that saw the greatest total number of abandoned vehicles in the year, with 3,666 vehicles reported dumped collectively across the nation.
Is it a criminal offence to abandon a vehicle?
Under the Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978, it’s against the law to abandon a vehicle and not dispose of it properly through means such as scrapping. If caught, the owner or offender can be prosecuted by the local authority for abandoning a vehicle in public and landed with a £2,500 fine and the potential of a three-month prison sentence.
David Kottaun, Scrap Car Comparison’s operations manager, said: “When a car becomes too much to run or maintain, some people can simply opt to abandon the vehicle.
“Abandoned vehicles can create problems for access if the car is blocking an entrance, path or even a road, as well as risking harming the environment they are abandoned in due to leaks of hazardous fluids. It also stretches the resources of councils investigating and removing the vehicle.
“While sometimes a vehicle may be abandoned due to crimes such as theft, in most cases where someone has chosen to leave their vehicle, they are potentially missing the opportunity to earn money due to scrapping their car instead.
“If a car is too old to drive or is not repairable, it could still offer you value through scrap value, so it is never a good idea to simply abandon a vehicle.”
Visit: scrapcarcomparison.co.uk/blog/scrap-car-report-statistics/ for more on the study.
