Dodgy scrap dealers a menace

10:20am Tuesday 29th April 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

THE huge rise in scrap metal prices has led to a major increase in the number of unlicensed operators and the flouting of environmental laws on the disposal of old cars across the UK.

The legal requirement is that end-of-life vehicles must be collected or taken to one of 1,200 Authorised Treatment Facilities (ATFs) licensed by the Environment Agency.

Here the liquid pollutants will be removed as well as tyres, batteries and windows.

Car owners should be issued with a Certificate of Destruction to prove the vehicle has been depolluted and scrapped lawfully.

But the flood of illegal dismantlers are undercutting the ATFs, allowing pollutants to pour down the drains, and often dumping the tyres. With only around 900,000 certificates of Destruction estimated to be issued this year, as many as 1.1 million old cars could be unlawfully collected during 2008.

Legitimate companies who have invested in depolluting equipment complain that they are being forced out of business by the rogue traders.

The fault lies with the DVLA in Swansea which has refused to adjust vehicle licensing paperwork to take account of the new legal requirement.

A loophole has been maintained in the Registration Certification that allows huge numbers of drivers and vehicle dismantlers to ignore anti-pollution rules.

I am pressing Ministers to crack some heads together, close the loopholes and put the dodgy dismantlers out of business.

CHRIS DAVIES, MEP.