Ealing has emerged as the number four London borough for reported abandoned cars with 1,629 said to be dumped, a new Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed.
Of those London boroughs who responded to the FOI request, a total of 29,570 abandoned vehicles were report over the 12–month period of September 2022 to September 2023.
Topping the list was Bromley with 2,239 abandoned vehicles and then followed by Enfield with 1,998, Hillingdon with 1,914 and Ealing with 1,629.
The Freedom of Information requests were made by Scrap Car Comparison.
David Kottaun, operations manager of the site told EALING.NEWS “In our research, Ealing ranked as having the fourth largest abandoned car problem in Greater London. Due to its large size, population and location that sits on the outskirts of London and covers quieter, more rural areas, it can be no surprise that it may be viewed by some as the perfect place to abandon a vehicle.”
Mr Kottaun added: “While it’s also worth considering that not all of the 1,629 abandoned car reports logged in Ealing will have turned out to actually be abandoned cars and some may have been retrieved by their owners, it does go to show that the borough seems to have an issue with abandoned vehicles, as the numbers place it as one of the abandoned car capitals of the United Kingdom, and not just London.
“If you’re an Ealing resident and think you have spotted an abandoned vehicle, this should be reported to the council and not the police, unless there is anything more suspicious or dangerous concerning the vehicle or its location. This can easily be done via the council website”.
To report an abandoned car or other vehicle in Ealing, click here.
Last year, it was revealed that Ealing received 4,593 reports of abandoned cars between January 2020 and December 2022 placing it at number four of all London boroughs, a council spokesperson told EALING.NEWS: “It is important that we make the technical distinction clear between vehicles which are abandoned and vehicles which are illegally or inconveniently parked. The Scrap Car Comparison article uses data about vehicles that have been reported abandoned, rather than vehicles which are actually abandoned.
“In Ealing, when a vehicle is reported as abandoned, each report is investigated by an officer who uses a specific set of criteria to assess if the vehicle is actually abandoned. We get between 2300 – 2500 reports of abandoned vehicles each year, and we will remove about 150-200 vehicles in a year.”
The Ealing Council spokesperson added: “Our criteria in relation to abandonment is usually expired tax, expired MOT, some physical signs that a vehicle has been stationary for a long time (rust or mould, vegetation growing under the vehicle, the amount of detritus on the vehicle, etc) or some combination of the three. The vast majority of abandoned vehicles reports refer to vehicles with valid tax and MOT and are either illegally or inconveniently parked (details of which are then shared with parking enforcement).”
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