Abandoned cars remain an issue for all local authorities in the UK.

More than fifty-three thousand were reported across the country.

But which cities suffered the biggest junk jams?

Out in the cold

Multiple Freedom of Information requests were submitted by Scrap Car Comparison .  It revealed a nationwide total of 53,794 abandoned car reports in the year to September.

London remains top of the league for four wheeled junk.

The Borough of Bromley has the most abandoned cars, with 2,239 reports made. Enfield (1,998 reports) and Hillingdon (1,914 reports) follow to complete the top three in the capital. 

However, looking beyond the 29,500 plus reports logged collectively by London’s various councils, driven by the capital’s high population and number of registered cars, it’s Coventry that stands out as having the biggest abandoned car issue in the country outside of London, with 1,898 abandoned car sightings over the last year.  

Country wide

While Coventry ranks as receiving the most abandoned car reports outside of London, Brighton and Hove follows in second place by a hairpin, with only nine fewer abandoned cars recorded in the East Sussex city within the last year. 

Coventry City Council received nearly two thousand reports (1,898) .

Brighton and Hove ranked second with 1,889 in the seaside city.

Leicester appears in third place, accounting for 1,765 abandoned vehicle reports, while the FOI data as highlights the north as a hub for forgotten vehicles, with Manchester, Sunderland, Bradford, and Cumberland councils all featuring high on the list. Each with over 800 abandoned vehicle reports to their respective councils since September 2022.    

Scottish cities also appear as hotspots for discarded vehicles, with Edinburgh and Glasgow city councils receiving over 1,000 reports submitted to the council over the last year. 

 

Most Abandoned Cars Reported? (Outside of Greater London) 

Rank Local Council  Total no. of reports (Sep 22 – Sep 23) 
1  Coventry  1,898 
2 Brighton and Hove  1,889
3  Leicester  1,765 
4  Manchester  1,664 
5  Sunderland  1,477 

 

Capital gains

In London, abandoned cars are a growing problem, with the collective total of the boroughs that responded to the FOIs totalling 29,570 abandoned vehicle report over the 12-month period, which averages out as more than two thousand reports every single month.  

The London Borough of Bromley takes the top spot as the abandoned car capital of London as well as the UK, having recorded 2,239 abandoned vehicle sightings since the start of September 2022 within the Bromley area alone. The largest of the London boroughs, with a population of over 334,000, there’s a high likelihood for cars to be ditched by previous owners or joyriders.  

Other Boroughs that also see a high level of abandoned car reports include Enfield with 1,998, Hillingdon with 1,914 and Ealing with 1,629. 

Rank  London Borough  Total no. of reports (Sep 22 – Sep 23) 
1  London Borough of Bromley  2,239 
2  London Borough of Enfield  1,998 
3  London Borough of Hillingdon  1,914 
4  London Borough of Ealing  1,629 
5  London Borough of Sutton  1,570 
6  London Borough of Lewisham  1,536 
7  London Borough of Merton  1,530 
8  London Borough of Havering  1,476 
9  London Borough of Barnet  1,439 
10  London Borough of Bexley  1,436 

 

Seasonal sensitivity

Interestingly, the results also reveal that January 2023 was the month that saw the greatest total number of abandoned vehicles in the year, with 3,666 vehicles reported as abandoned collectively across the nation. This could be down to a range of factors, such as an increase in opportunistic car theft and joyriding while people were out at festive celebrations, to people opting to desert a costly old motor as purse strings tighten in the winter months. 

Criminal actions

Under the Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978, it’s against the law to abandon a vehicle and not dispose of it properly through means such as scrapping. If caught, the owner or offender can be prosecuted by the local authority for abandoning a vehicle in public and landed with a £2,500 fine and the potential of a three-month prison sentence.  

Environmental community

“When a car becomes too much to run or maintain, some people can simply opt to abandon the vehicle,” says David Kottaun, Operations Manager at Scrap Car Comparison.

“Abandoned vehicles can create problems for access if the car is blocking an entrance, path or even a road, as well as risking harming the environment they are abandoned in due to leaks of hazardous fluids. It also stretches the resources of councils investigating and removing the vehicle.   

“While sometimes a vehicle may be abandoned due to crimes such as theft, in most cases where someone has chosen to leave their vehicle, they are potentially missing the opportunity to earn money due to scrapping their car instead.   

“If a car is too old to drive or is not repairable, it could still offer you value through scrap value, so it is never a good idea to simply abandon a vehicle”. 

For more information on the abandoned car hotspots of the UK, as well as other motoring related inisights, visit Scrap Car Comparison’s new UK driving statistics report here