A six-fold increase in abandoned cars in UK

New research reveals the number of vehicles being dumped on the roadside has increased six-fold in four years.

Freedom of Information requests by Confused.com to Britain’s 436 local authorities, showed 31,812 abandoned cars were removed by councils in 2016 and 2017 – that’s one car every 30 minutes. The driver savings site has also created an interactive scrap yard map which identifies the most prolific regions for drivers ditching their cars.

Amanda Stretton, motoring editor at Confused.com, says: “The rising cost of fuel, car insurance and tax is overwhelming some motorists, causing some of them to ditch their vehicles when they breakdown. Our interactive map shows just how much of an issue this has become across Britain, as councils spend hundreds of thousands of pounds every year removing unwanted cars from the roadside. Abandoned vehicles are an eyesore and a nuisance.”

They advise anyone who has suspects a car has been dumped in their area s to contact their local council, who will get in touch with the owner, or remove it.

These nuisance vehicles come at a price to the tax payer, as local authorities fork out hundreds of thousands of pounds each year clearing roads of abandoned cars. In fact, councils spent £933,379 in 2016 and 2017 alone. And this bill is barely paid by the £115,610 issued to drivers in fines. Over the two years, councils were also responsible for destroying 20,551 of the seized vehicles, which likely added to the expense. The problem has not gone unnoticed by the public, with 261,724 reports of abandoned vehicles filed in 2016 and 2017. Amanda Stretton added: “Sadly, one of the reasons so many drivers are abandoning their vehicles is due to the rising cost of owning a car, especially car insurance which is now £827 on average.”

Confused.com has developed an interactive map to show the extent of Britain’s abandoned car problem.

Its ‘Scrapyard Britain’ tool reveals 15,017 vehicles were reported as abandoned in Yorkshire and The Humber in 2016 and 2017

Coventry was found to be the ‘scrap yard capital’ with 2,321 abandoned. Its council removed more vehicles than any other in 2016 and 2017. By comparison Bradford had 219 abandoned.

The south east had the highest retrieval rate with 6,264. In our region the figure was 1,047. See www.confused.com/car-insurance/abandoned-cars for more.