Council will be able to tow cars after unpaid fines

Cars on Pettiwell, in Garsington have racked up more than £20,000 of unpaid parking fines

A local authority has voted to adopt new powers that will allow it tow vehicles that are left untaxed on a single-track country lane.

Cars left on Pettiwell, in Garsington, Oxfordshire, have racked up more than £20,000 worth of unpaid parking fines over the past two years.

On Thursday, South Oxfordshire District Council voted to take over responsibility from the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) for removing vehicles from the road.

It is the latest attempt to tackle the issue of abandoned vehicles on the street, after the introduction of double yellow lines and regular parking inspections failed to solve the problem.

Councillor Tim Bearder, who proposed the motion, said illegal parking was a "persistent problem" on Petiwell, and that people were currently "just abusing the system".

"What we're trying to do is take on every power that we've got so that we can tackle this in every way," he said.

"We've already put the double yellow lines in, but that's got a long way to go and it's not a silver bullet."

"But this is another arrow in our quiver to try and tackle the problem."

Oxfordshire County Council, which manages the county's highways, said it had issued 996 penalty charge notices on Pettiwell since double yellow lines were introduced in 2021.

"The area is visited regularly and we've undertaken removal operations against illegally parked vehicles."

The council said a total of £21,936 worth of fines were currently unpaid.

"We've found that some drivers aren't paying, and when we request keeper details from the DVLA we often find the vehicles have been sold or scrapped without the records being updated," it explained.

"Where there are no keeper details, the PCNs are cancelled. Even when we use enforcement agents, many cannot be traced."

Double yellow lines were put in on the single track road in 2021

Mr Bearder said the district council's new powers "don't come with any additional funding" and were "not a position that the council wanted to be in".

"But we recognise where there's pernicious and ongoing problems going back decades that actually, we need to act," he added.

The DVLA said its Devolved Power Partner scheme allowed local authorities and police forces to work in partnership with it to clamp and impound untaxed vehicles in their area.

"These partners play a crucial role in helping ensure that over 98% of vehicles on UK roads are correctly taxed and that untaxed vehicles are kept off our roads," it added.

Thames Valley Police, which also holds the DVLA powers, said it had removed eight uninsured vehicles from Pettiwell this year.

"While police do have powers to remove untaxed vehicles, these are primarily exercised by the DVLA," the force added.