Roadsides fast becoming a graveyard for old bangers

BRITAIN’S roads are seeing a resurgence of old bangers as higher scrappage costs have led to more drivers abandoning cars at the kerb, data suggest.

Freedom of Information requests to more than 400 councils revealed the number of cars being reported as abandoned had risen nearly three times from 40,876 in 2012 to 147,616 in 2016.

Experts said the phenomenon was due to rising scrappage costs and a trend for drivers choosing to run their cars into the ground.

Edmund King, president of the AA, said: “Twenty years ago if you had a rubbish car you could get £150 for scrapping it. But in recent years the price of metal has gone down and nowadays people will be asked to pay over £100 to have their car ... scrapped.”

According to recent data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the average age of a vehicle on the road has increased from 6.8 years in 2003 to 7.8 in 2015. This reflects both slower fleet renewal and the increased longevity of vehicles.

The average age of a car at scrappage in 2015 rose to 13.9 years, up from 13 years in 2009.

Councils are now spending a million pounds a year removing old bangers from roadsides, with a total of 18,941 towed away in 2016, up from 2,797 in 2012, the data showed.

Amanda Stretton, motoring editor at Confused.com, which collected the data, said: “The rising cost of fuel, car insurance and tax is overwhelming some motorists, causing some of them to ditch their vehicles when they break down. Abandoned vehicles are an eyesore and a nuisance.”