Thousands of cars have been abandoned in Fife fuelling fears the region’s roads are becoming a junkyard.
Fife Council said it has received 3,562 reports from the public about cars, vans and caravans being dumped on public roads in the past three years — more than three per day.
It is believed the plummeting price of scrap metal means owners are simply choosing to walk away from vehicles, prompting the local authority to deal with the aftermath.
The scale of the problem has led Fife’s environment convener, Councillor Ross Vettraino, to call for a zero tolerance approach to be adopted to deter those considering a similar means of disposing of their old car.
“An abandoned vehicle is yet another example of littering and is an act of environmental vandalism,” he said.
“People who do so are demonstrating their contempt for the environment and for their fellow human beings with whom the environment is shared. The level of their irresponsibility is quite breath taking.
“Every single piece of litter is the result of a deliberate action on the part of an irresponsible member of society. Unhappily, littering in general seems to be increasing and is placing an increasing demand on the council’s street cleansing resource.
“I will be urging the council’s enforcement officers to adopt an attitude of zero tolerance towards such environmental irresponsibility.”
Figures provided by Fife Council show the number of reports it received about abandoned vehicles soared between 2015 and 2016, almost doubling from 769 to 1,489.
Last year saw this number rising again, with the local authority receiving 1,304 reports by November 1.
The soaring number of reports is believed to tie in with a drop in the price of scrap metal, while rising insurance costs could also have resulted in older vehicles being dumped by owners.
Dawn Jamieson, safer communities team manager at Fife Council confirmed: “We’re seeing an increasing number of abandoned vehicles being reported to us for investigation.
“This appears to mainly be due to the low value of scrap metal with some scrap yards introducing charges to scrap vehicles.”
