The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Fife roads now dumping ground for scrap cars
Abandoned rust-buckets littering roadsides right across the kingdom
The plummeting price of scrap metal has fuelled fears Fife’s roads are becoming a dumping ground for clapped-out cars.
Fife Council says it has received more than 3,500 reports of dumped cars on the region’s roads in the last three years, with dozens of vehicles being destroyed.
A dramatic drop in scrap prices, allied to soaring insurance and maintenance costs for older vehicles, has been cited as a reason for the problem, however a leading Fife Council official has warned of a “zero tolerance” approach to tackling the issue.
Environment convener Ross Vettraino said that the dumping of vehicles expressed “contempt” for the region, adding: “The level of their irresponsibility is quite breathtaking.”
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 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 quite breathtaking.
“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, said: “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.”
The level of their irresponsibility is quite breathtaking