The number of abandoned cars on Britain’s roads has increased dramatically. New figures suggest car dumping is in danger of becoming an epidemic in some areas. In 2016, 18,941 discarded cars were removed from our roadsides. That is nearly seven times the number that were taken away in 2012.
Price comparison website Confused.com put in a freedom of information request to local authorities. This revealed 261,724 dumped cars were reported in 2016 and 2017. It compares to 40,876 in 2012. The result is councils have had to splash out nearly £1 million to clear up the scrap cars over the past two years.
Here we look into the various factors behind the phenomenon and find that abandoning a broken car isn’t the only thing to do with it.