AN ABANDONED and vandalised vehicle has been removed from a Basingstoke car park after sitting there for 'a month'.

Residents in Oakridge raised concerns at the start of April regarding an abandoned vehicle which was left in Upper Sherborne Road car park.

The car had been broken into, with both the inside and outside vandalised.

However, it wasn't removed until this afternoon (Tuesday, April 26), despite the council saying that it allows owners 10 days to claim their vehicle.

Cllr Laura James (Basingstoke and Deane Independent Group, Norden) told the Gazette that the council's policy regarding abandoned vehicles needs to be re-looked at.

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She said: "We really need to be shifting these things as soon as possible. I think it's something we need to look at as a policy. Ten days could be a long time in some circumstances. There should be some flexibility."

She continued: "From the residents' point of view, what they care about is that it is vandalised. It's quite dangerous for children and what I'm worried about is that that was near a playground. It's tempting for children, they could climb on it or even get inside.

"There's no reason why the person who has abandoned it can't then claim it from somewhere else. It could be put in a compound, somewhere safe. And if [the council] are not going to move it, they should at least cover it in some way!"

Cllr James added that she first reported the vehicle to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council (BDBC) on April 12, but has been told that residents had made reports several days and even weeks prior to that, and she feels "a month" is too much of a delay.

"The public are being given a different response to me as a councillor, and even then the vehicle was still there. It's two different messages so we need to look at communication," she said.

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In a statement on Friday, April 22, BDBC’s interim head of environment and community services, Robert Draper, said: “The council is aware of the abandoned vehicle in Upper Sherborne Road car park.

"The vehicle has been assessed by a community safety patrolling officer and identified as abandoned. The council has already written to the owner giving them 10 working days to remove the vehicle. If no action is taken the council will remove the vehicle.”

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