Taxpayers foot the bill to clear up ‘war-zone’

Peterborough City Council clears destroyed cars from private land - and will work with land owners to stop problems happening again as video describes area as ‘looking like a war zone’

Anumber of burnt out cars havebeen cleared from land in Peterborough - with the council tax-payer footing the bill for the removal.

The nine vans and cars had been left in a field off Oxney Road, Peterborough over the past few weeks.

A number of them were abandoned on their roof or side, with windows smashed andpaint torched away. Tyres andwheelshadbeenremoved, making it difficult to retrieve the vehicles.

The cars were left next to piles of scrap metal and other rubbish on the grassy scubland.

A video of the cars appeared on social media, comparingtheviewtothatofawar zone.

The vehicles were removed from the private land last weekend by Peterborough City Council - however, despitethefacttheyhavebeen left on private land, a spokesman for Peterborough City Council said there were ‘exceptional circumstances’ and they removed the vehicles at no cost to the land owner.

The spokesman said the land owner would be expected to pay for removal of other rubbish from the land, andalsomeasurestostopsimilarincidents happening again.

APeterboroughCityCouncil spokesman said measures which could be put in place could include a large ditch, fence or lengthy mound to stop cars being dumped on the land.

Temporary measures are expected to be introduced beforepermanentdeterrentsare installed. It is notknownwhen the works will be started.

It would normally cost a land owner£60toremoveone vehicle from private land, if theycontactedthecitycouncil to carry out the job - meaning it would cost £540 to remove all the cars.

Thecarswereclearedaway fromthesiteearlyonSaturday morning.

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue have dealt with a numberofcarfiresinthearea over thepastfewweeks, using valuable time and resources.

Fire and Rescue Station Commander Karl Bowden, joint head of the SaferPeterborough Partnership, said there was a number of agencies working to tackle the problem.

He said: “The partnership is aware of the current issues on Oxney Road and all agencies are working together to address these.

“The fire service has been called to incidents in Oxney Road on a number of occasions, which have been fires in the open, rubbish fires and car fires.

“The cars that have been abandoned and burnt out are located on private land.

“Officers working in the SaferPeterborough Partnership, which includes the city council, fire service and police, have agreed with the landowner’s management to arrange removal of all vehicles .

“We will also be working with the landowner to remove the rubbish accumulation at the same location and put measures in place to stop it reoccurring.”

A spokesman for Cambridgeshire police said they were aware of the vehicles that had been left at the site, but nocrimehadbeenreported to them, and they were not investigating any incidents.

The spokesman said they would investigate any reports of arson at the site.

Some of the cars