Abandoned motor vehicles
Abandoned motor vehicles
Adur and Worthing Councils are part of Operation Crackdown, a partnership between Sussex Police, East and West Sussex County Councils, Brighton City Council, and all the District and Borough Councils in East and West Sussex. This initiative aims to speed up the removal of abandoned vehicles from the streets of Sussex by the use of Police powers, meaning it is no longer necessary to place notices on suspected abandoned vehicles.
All reports are checked by the Police at the start of the process, and, if as a result of inspection by the Council inspectors a vehicle is thought to be abandoned and enquiries have not revealed any interested party, the case is passed back to the Police to decide to class the vehicle as abandoned. If so, the Council will be authorised to arrange for its removal and disposal.
Please note that there is no legal definition of abandonment. When investigating an abandoned vehicle an officer will check for certain characteristics such as no valid tax being displayed, flat tyres, detritus build up around the wheels, waste inside the vehicle or obvious body deterioration (not an exhaustive list). Any of these characteristics found in isolation may not suggest that the vehicle has been abandoned. For example vehicles not displaying a tax disc may just be an avoidance of paying the vehicle excise licence and not mean the vehicle has been abandoned. Details of what to do in these cases are set out below.
Operation Crackdown and reporting abandoned vehicles
You can now report abandoned vehicles on-line using the new streamlined procedure by clicking on the Operation Crackdown link below (or telephoning the Call Centre on 01243 642222). You will be re-directed to the Sussex Police web site where you will be able to enter the details of the vehicle and it's location on a Public Reporting Form. The form should only take a few minutes to complete - and the more information you can provide, the quicker we can begin proceedings to remove the vehicle. This enables the necessary checks to be carried out more quickly.
To report an abandoned vehicle go to the Operation Crackdown website 
- Precise location of vehicle (ie, "outside number 23 Milton Road")
- Description of vehicle, make, model number, colour and, if available, registration number
- Approximate length of time the vehicle has been at this location
- Note : If you do report an abandoned vehicle to the council it will then get logged on the Operation Crackdown website as above. If you log the vehicle straight there yourself then you will miss out a step in the process and thereby save time and possibly get it dealt with a bit quicker.
- Note : we usually cannot deal with vehicles displaying a current valid tax disc.
Untaxed vehicles
If you wish to report an untaxed vehicle that is currently in use you should report it on-line :
Note : Adur and Worthing Council Services officers can only notify the DVLA of untaxed vehicles that have been abandoned - it is better if you contact them direct yourself.
See also :
- DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) website
- VOSA (Vehicle and Operator Services Agency) website
Last Updated : Friday, November 19, 2010 (16:17)
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