THREE cars are being removed from Oxford’s streets every week, the Oxford Mail can reveal.

New figures show that Oxford City Council removed 153 dumped cars during 2009, at a cost of £46,000, with 28 of the vehicles taken from streets in Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys.

The council released the information in a bid to shame owners into tidying up their own cars as part of its Cleaner, Greener Campaign, which is backed by the Oxford Mail.

In 2008, the figure was even higher, with 261 cars being removed.

John Tanner, the council’s executive member for a cleaner, greener Oxford, said most of the vehicles were abandoned because people could no longer afford to run them.

Firefighters said that if dumped vehicles were not taken away quickly, they could become targets for vandals.

In 2007, the county’s fire and rescue service dealt with 493 car fires, of which 289 were found to have been started deliberately.

Fire service station manager Bob Speakman said: “In addition to the costs involved in removing them, when cars are left lying around, they can be an attraction for certain people to set fire to them. This causes damage, pollution and, most seriously of all, a significant risk of injury.”

District councils are required to investigate all vehicles suspected of being dumped on public roads, or which lack a valid tax disc or are not officially recorded as having been taken off the road.

When councils are told about a suspect abandoned vehicle, officers use the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency database to try to trace the owner.

If the vehicle is parked on a road, the owner has seven days to remove it. If it is on private land, the allowance is 18 days.

If no action is taken, the council will arrange collection and send the vehicle for scrap.

Mr Tanner said: “I think people abandon their cars because they break down, or they can’t afford to insure them, so they just leave them on the street.

“I think people should arrange to get rid of their cars properly and not expect the council to do it for them.

“Sometimes it’s stolen cars, but very often it’s cars that have broken down and people don’t want to fix them.”

He added: “They can be left all over the place. If you see a car which you think is abandoned, report it to the council immediately.

“The biggest problem is that it costs the council taxpayer money to have them removed.”

In west Oxfordshire, 31 vehicles were recovered by the district council last year, while in Cherwell, 55 vehicles were picked up. In south Oxfordshire, 31 vehicles were removed and Vale of White Horse district council arranged for collection and disposal of 17 cars.

These vehicles were dumped all over the districts, rather than just on the outskirts of Oxford.

Gerry Webb, the chairman of Blackbird Leys Parish Council, said a number of cars had been abandoned recently at the estate’s Spindleberry Nature Reserve.

He said: “They can look an eyesore, but with abandoned cars, it’s kids getting locked in and trapped or hurt that concerns me. It’s a good thing they are cleaned up.”

Blackbird Leys neighbourhood police officer Sgt Rob Axe said: “We don’t have hotspots but we always check behind garages, because they can be favourite places to abandon cars, as well as the car park at the Kassam Stadium.

“It’s one of the biggest housing estates in Europe, there are a lot of cars, and I think it goes hand-in-hand with that.”

Two years ago, the Oxford Mail reported that the city and district councils had to use the DVLA database to track down the owners of abandoned or suspicious cars more than 3,000 times. Nearly half of all the investigations were in Oxford, costing the city council about£45,000.