KEEPING an untaxed vehicle on the public road has led to a Stansted man having to pay �200.

KEEPING an untaxed vehicle on the public road has led to a Stansted man having to pay �200.

The Croasdaile Road man had his Vauxhall Tigra seized from Lower Street, Stansted on Thursday September 30.

The vehicle was untaxed and subject to a statutory off-road notification (SORN), which covers a vehicle when it is off the road. However, by leaving his car in the street, the owner was breaking the law.

Powers to seize untaxed vehicles were devolved to Uttlesford District Council from the DVLA last year. Now if a vehicle has been untaxed for 28 days, the council’s enforcement team can visit the vehicle to confirm its location and arrange for it to be towed away within half an hour.

The vehicle will then be kept in storage until its owner can produce the necessary legal documents and money required to secure its release. If this does not happen, it will either be auctioned or destroyed, depending on its value.

In the case of the car seized from Stansted, its owner had to pay �200: a �100 removal fee and a �100 storage fee. The amount he would have had to pay would have increased by �21 every weekday he failed to collect it, to cover the cost of the vehicle’s ongoing storage.

Chairman of the council’s environment committee, Cllr Susan Barker, said: “This incident shows the council will not hesitate to use its DVLA-devolved powers whenever it discovers a car that is either untaxed or abandoned.

“Our enforcement team has a lot of experience in dealing with this kind of problem and can have an untaxed vehicle taken off the street in minutes.

“If anyone is concerned that a vehicle near them is either untaxed or has been abandoned, I would urge them to contact the council so we can investigate and take whatever action is necessary.

“A push in enforcement activity is one of the facets of our Keep Uttlesford Tidy campaign, our major drive to clean up the district.”

• To report an untaxed or abandoned vehicle, contact the council’s enforcement team via the UConnect customer service centre on 01799 510510.