FIFTEEN cars a week are being abandoned in Wyre Forest because owners cannot be bothered to take them to scrap yards, it has been revealed.

Dumping of unwanted and worthless vehicles has become a major headache for the authorities with figures rocketing by a massive 300 per cent over the last three years. District councillor Brian Glass and Pam Manning, council officer with responsibility for dealing with abandoned vehicles, check a car dumped in the car park of the Sutton Arms pub in Kidderminster.

In the last 12 months, a total of 770 abandoned vehicles - some left by joyriders but most dumped because they are worthless - were dealt with by Wyre Forest District Council which is struggling to cope with the huge upsurge.

Councillor Brian Glass, portfolio holder for environmental health and community safety, said: "Unfortunately it is clear that scrap cars have no value and rather than pay for disposal, irresponsible owners simply dump them in increasing numbers."

Councillor Glass, who revealed the shocking figures, said steps had been taken to combat the problem, in conjunction with the police, by streamlining procedures.

Rob Key, head of environmental health and community safety with the council, said Wyre Forest was reflecting a national trend.

He said previously, car wrecks were often taken to scrapyards and sold. "Now, no-one wants them," he added.

In addition, he said more stringent MoTs and phasing out four-star petrol had played a part, together with the fact that drivers could buy a 'banger' for next to nothing.

"We have seen this meteoric rise in cars being abandoned. You can go out anywhere in the district and see them. As fast as we shift them, someone dumps them."

He said the council was restricted in how quickly it could remove abandoned cars. It had to attempt to contact the vehicle owner and serve appropriate notices before it could instruct a contractor to remove a vehicle.

If the vehicle represented a danger to the public the police had the power to remove it. Otherwise it could take seven to eight days to remove a vehicle if it was a wreck and up to 21 days if it was roadworthy, he added.

"We have to establish if there is a registered owner; if is there is an outstanding hire purchase agreement; or if it is a stolen vehicle. It is has gone from being almost a part-time job to a full-time one.

"We don't have the resources to cope and it's just escalating," he said.

Insp Steve Craig, of Kidder-minster Police, said the obligation by local authorities to place notices on suspected abandoned cars, indicating that they were at risk of being towed away, drew the attention of vandals to the vehicles.

He said: "This makes the problem worse, much, much worse. Every car contains a lot of toxic components such as petrol, battery acid, as well as other chemicals, and if they catch fire, they release toxic fumes. An abandoned car is a little ecological disaster.

"We would urge people to dispose of their cars responsibly."