REVEALED: Nearly 10,000 cars abandoned in wider Portsmouth area in just five years

PORTSMOUTH is the '˜scrapyard capital' of the county, figures on abandoned vehicles show.
A car being scrapped in a breakers yard. Picture: John Stillwell/PA WireA car being scrapped in a breakers yard. Picture: John Stillwell/PA Wire
A car being scrapped in a breakers yard. Picture: John Stillwell/PA Wire

Data obtained by Confused.com shows that Portsmouth City Council had the highest number of abandoned vehicles between 2016 and up to October last year.

Over the two years, the council received 2,879 reports of abandoned vehicles in the city.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Havant had 1,182 reports, Gosport had 684 and Fareham had 656 reports.

It comes as Portsmouth, Fareham, Havant and Gosport have all seen increasing numbers of cars dumped in the streets.

Over the last five years the four districts had nearly 10,000 reports from the public – while available data shows just 187 were recovered in the same time period.

And in 2016/17 alone Portsmouth had 1,702 cars reported as abandoned.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In the last five years Fareham spent £3,537 on removing cars, and Gosport £4,798.

Details on cash spent were not available for other councils.

Councillor Donna Jones, leader of Portsmouth City Council, said: ‘Abandoned vehicles create a massive burden to the public and are inconvenient because they are often not insured and take up valuable space on the roads.

‘The council has a strong team and a contract with Boarhunt Garage – if a car is not taxed or insured then it is destroyed.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

‘Portsmouth has more than 250,000 people living here, so we have far more cars and I would expect our numbers to be higher than our neighbours.

‘To cover the cost we go to the last known owner and charge them for the vehicle’s disposal.’

In Gosport, just nine vehicles have been recovered by the council over the five years – despite there being 1,484 dumped vehicles over the same period.

In Fareham, 122 were recovered amid 1799 reports, and in Havant 56 were removed with 2,176 reports.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Data for how many cars had been towed was not available for Portsmouth.

Amanda Stretton, motoring editor at Confused.com, said: ‘The rising cost of fuel, car insurance and tax is overwhelming some motorists, causing some of them to ditch their vehicles.

‘Abandoned vehicles are an eye-sore and a nuisance. Sadly, one of the reasons so many drivers are abandoning their vehicles is due to the rising cost of owning a car, especially car insurance which is now £827 on average.’

Click here to see Confused.com’s interactive map on abandoned vehicles.