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Abandoned vehicles

The Council will deal with any vehicles reported as abandoned on land in the open air maintained at public expense (and on private property upon request/authorisation).

The vehicle will be removed if it is considered abandoned and is not claimed by the owner/registered keeper prior to expiry of statutory notices placed on the vehicle and/or sent to the owner/registered keeper. Nuisance/dangerous vehicles e.g. burnt out, may be removed immediately for health and safety reasons. Removal and recovery of vehicles treated as abandoned, nuisance or dangerous may attract statutory service costs.

We have powers to remove vehicles, which we believe have been abandoned on land in the open air maintained at public expense. Vehicles abandoned on private land are the responsibility of the landowner.

Our target is to inspect vehicles reported as abandoned within one working day of receiving a complaint and to remove vehicles that are unclaimed within two days of the statutory notice period expiring. The current statutory notice period as laid out in the relevant legislation is 24 hours.

We require proof of an individual’s identity and the vehicle log book (V5) to accept any claim of ownership. The registered keeper details on the vehicle log book (V5) must match the claimants proven name and address. No other form of documentation will be accepted as proof of ownership and we will not enter into any correspondence/communication with any person other than the registered keeper. Removal, storage and other charges must be paid in advance of any vehicle authorised from release back to the owner/registered keeper.

To report an abandoned vehicle please use the link on the right or contact us using the details on the right. When reporting online the system will generate a web reference number, this is not a reporting reference number and you will not be able to match it against any reference numbers available on the tracking report.