Reporting abandoned vehicles

Many of you have been in touch about abandoned vehicles in your neighbourhoods. It can be frustrating when parking is at a premium to see spaces used indefinitely by vans, cars or caravans that are never moved and left to slowly disintegrate. They can also attract anti-social behaviour, with a van on Chatsworth Way for example recently having its windows smashed.

We encourage residents to report abandoned vehicles – the more reports made, the easier the case is to get them removed. You can do this with a simple online form here: www.lambeth.gov.uk/forms/report-an-abandoned-vehicle-form

If you’re making a report, please let us know! We can keep track of how many abandoned vehicles there are and chase up your reports, to get some action taken. We find it as frustrating as many of you do that it can take so long to get anything done about abandoned vehicles, so please do keep us in the loop so that we can add our voices to your reporting, as well as encouraging neighbours to do the same.

With the van on Chatsworth Way – we have been reporting this for a while now both to the council and to the DVLA, and know that other residents on this street have been very diligent in doing so too. The response to our initial enquiries was that it did not meet the criteria for an abandoned vehicle as it was taxed and had an MOT, and was not damaged. We have met with officers since and argued that these should not be the only criteria used. Since the window was smashed, we have also requested an additional street clean from Veolia to clear up broken glass, and Councillor Peter Ely has taped up the window to try and prevent further glass falling on the pavements.