Frustration caused by car left "cluttering up" a Caithness lay-by
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Concerns have been expressed about a car which appears to have been abandoned in a lay-by on the A99 south of Keiss for around two months.
Following complaints from members of the public Wick and East Caithness councillor Raymond Bremner spoke to council officers and the police about the problem, establishing that the car had a valid tax disc and an owner, and was therefore not deemed abandoned.
"It is hugely frustrating and an issue that, nationally, we need to get a grip of to stop irresponsible members of the public cluttering up our communities with these annoyances,” he said.
“The issue we have with so-called 'abandoned' cars is that many of them are not abandoned. A vehicle in a lay-by with a registered keeper and a valid license disc is not abandoned, it is a nuisance.
"If anything, the lay-by is being abused as a car parking place. This is part of the problem that I have been trying to tackle for the past 18 months."
The local councillor brought a motion to the Highland Council which is currently going through the process of being addressed and as part of that policy review it has been discussed with other local authority areas nationally.
"It is a national problem," said councillor Bremner. "If the council were to consider the vehicle as a nuisance then there should be powers available to them to deal with it as such.
"Right now, while the vehicle has a registered keeper, who might not necessarily be the legal owner, and while it is licensed, removal of the vehicle without the owner’s permission could easily be considered as theft."
The police have visited the vehicle and put tape round it to let people know they were aware of it. A seven-day notice was also placed on the car.
Councillor Bremner went on to point out: "Another challenge we face in the community is the ability to dispose of vehicles when authorities have the ability to legally do so. There is a cost to the collection and uplift of every vehicle.
"There is a cost of storage and a cost of disposal. These costs could and should be charged to the owner but there is no guarantee that those costs can be recovered.
"Without a robust nuisance and abandoned vehicle policy the whole situation is open to abuse. If the public purse pays for every vehicle that people think they can simply abandon without recourse to them for cost recovery, then who knows how many vehicles and types of vehicles that the council would be clearing up, all paid for by the public purse."
He stressed that this was the reason policies needed to be tightened up nationally in a bid to tackle the issue.
"I have had confirmation that the issue is being tackled by the chair of the communities and place committee at Highland Council and look forward to the progress being reported to that committee soon."
Councillor Bremner added: "The council has had some considerable success, particularly here in Caithness, in tackling a number of the issues that have been reported to us over the past months, but licensed vehicles with registered keepers, parked in lay-bys, are not abandoned and can’t be treated as such.
Offering guidance, a police spokesperson said: "Police tape is often just used to make sure people know that police are aware of the vehicle to save them from calling in.
"Recovering abandoned vehicles is largely a matter for the council."
More information about the council's policy on abandoned vehicles can be found here: https://www.highland.gov.uk/info/1330/street_care_and_cleaning/114/abandoned_vehicles
