‘Massive increase’ in abandoned vehicles in Wakefield due to high running costs and low scrap metal prices

A report say Wakefield Council has seen a spike in reported incidents due to the rise in vehicle running costs and low scrap metal prices.

The report by councillor Matthew Morley, Wakefield Council’s Cabinet member for planning and highways, states the local authority’s Highways Enforcement Team received 536 reports from the public in the first quarter of 2022.

It resulted in the team taking action against individuals on 394 occasions.

Coun Morley’s report, to be put to a Full Council meeting next week, states: “The top three reasons are abandoned vehicles (185), overhanging vegetation (161) and highway encroachment (24).

“Over this period the team made 821 visits across the Wakefield district to look at the reports and start procedures to rectify the situation.

“On a daily basis an officer deals with 4.5 jobs and made nine visits a day for the first four months of this year.

“Abandoned vehicles are a time-consuming process, the vehicle must be confirmed as abandoned and this can take up to 14 days and two to four visits to establish that the vehicle isn’t just parked there or broken down.

“There has been a massive increase in abandoned vehicles due to running costs and the price of scrap metal being low.”

“For the quarter we had 255 reports of abandoned vehicles but only 185 were actually abandoned but this led to 555 visits to identify and remove the vehicles.”

The unit received 165 overhanging vegetation reports and dealt with 161 by making contact with the property owner to have it cut back.

The report says: “An initial letter is sent out to the owner advising what needs to be done and 75 per cent of vegetation is cut back by the owner so no more action is needed.

“If the owner refuses/ is unable to cut the vegetation back the Council can do the work and we will bill the owner for the amount paid to have the work done.