You have probably seen at least one of these around our town in the last six months - abandoned and burnt out cars, cars for sale parked along busy main roads and in lay-bys or seen makeshift garages in people’s gardens.
The impact of these on residents’ quality of life and on the local environment is huge and something has to be done to address this problem. In July, around 60 leaders of local organisations and businesses met to discuss how working together could lead to a lasting crack down on car related crime and nuisance in the town.
Michael Foster MP, leading Councillors and representatives from Sussex and Kent Police, East Sussex Fire Brigade, the Borough and County Councils, the DVLA, Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions, Housing Associations and the Benefits Agency met to share information on all the various organisations’ powers to deal with abandoned, torched, unlicensed and uninsured vehicles.
It was decided that tough action needs to be taken, and by drawing on all the various powers that these organisations have is more likely to have a lasting effect.
An action plan is now being drawn up which will allow all the organisations that attended to sign up to get tough together. This will include setting up a joint working party that can carry on meeting to share ideas and resources. It will focus on: untaxed in use vehicles; drivers with no insurance and no driving licence; cottage car repair and sales industry. A central information point will be established - this means that people will be able to report car related crime and nuisance to any agency (for example the police or the Council) and the information will be entered into a central database which all the organisations will have access to.
The working party will also look at the major organisations present, all making a financial contribution to kick start the zero tolerance approach to car nuisance and crime. Council Leader Jeremy Birch chaired the car summit. He said:
"We were very impressed by the representative from Kent Police. Kent has cracked down on car tax dodgers and abandoned vehicles. They carried out an operation at a cost of £50,000 which was funded by the DVLA, fire brigade, police and the district and county Councils which resulted in 100 cars being towed away and crushed over an eight week period. I hope we can do something similar here over the next few months."
"Car related crime and nuisance has a direct impact on the quality of life of our residents and Hastings Council is already taking action by introducing a scheme which will see vehicles which have no car tax or five or more parking penalty notices, clamped and removed. We have also appointed a Car Crime Reduction Co-ordinator who will be working on a new action plan with us."
"Why should responsible vehicle owners and Council Tax payers have to bear the cost of people who dump cars and fail to pay tax and insurance."
Inspector Jerry Coleman represented Sussex Police at the car summit. He said:
"I was very pleased that this meeting took place. It was a very positive step towards all the agencies working together to tackle the problem of car related crime and nuisance in the town - I can’t wait to get started!"
All the agencies were split into two workshops at the end of the meeting to come up with a local and national action plan to tackle car nuisance and crime in Hastings & St Leonards.
This group identified areas in national legislation that could be improved to help tackle the problems. They included:
This group identified short-term initiatives which would help tackle the problems. They included:
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This page last updated: 15/10/2001