£12,000 abandoned vehicle headache for local authority

Uplifting vehicles reported as abandoned last year cost Aberdeenshire Council more than £12,000.

Among the locations vehicles were found were a bus stop on the A90 at Bridge of Muchalls and by a war memorial in Luthermuir.

Aberdeenshire Council spent £12,003.20 on removing vehicles in 2016-17, which was offset by an income of just £830 from scrap.

The £12,000 figure was the highest in the last four years and related to the uplift of 101 vehicles – 67 of which were found to have been discarded, also the highest in the last four years.

A spokesman for Aberdeenshire Council said: “The reason for the increase in costs is that we have accounted for the expense of uplifting all reported vehicles, not just those which were eventually deemed abandoned.

“In 2015-16, 76 vehicles were uplifted, of which 65 were deemed abandoned.

“In 2016-17, 101 were uplifted, 67 of which were deemed abandoned.”

The figures also showed that in 2013-14, the authority spent £6,515.50 on uplifting vehicles reported as abandoned, of which 43 were deemed abandoned.

The following year that figure fell to £4,971.50 for removed vehicles, 41 of which had been abandoned. But the amount spent rose in 2015-16 to £8,971.20.

Between April and early August this year 21 discarded vehicles were removed in Aberdeenshire.

Cars deemed to be abandoned are scrapped.

This brought in £1,830 in 2013-14, £1,100 in 2014-15 and £225 in 2015-16.