Rusty tow truck left rotting

[TowForce]

Rusty tow truck left rotting in Moseley street for 8 years removed after parking pleas

 

 

A tow truck parked on a residential street in Moseley has finally been removed - after it was left languishing for a whopping eight years, BirminghamLive understands. The rusted eye-sore, which had become a hazard to local residents, was parked nearly a decade ago, and has not moved an inch since, according to locals.

 

Mystery surrounded the circumstances of the 'abandoned' truck. It has seen off numerous Prime Ministers and lockdowns - and many changes along its makeshift home on the corner of Woodhurst Road and Queenswood Road. Moseley councillor Izzy Knowles told us it was not technically dumped, but because the owner kept re-taxing the vehicle, it could not be removed.

 

However at the start of the year, the truck had not been re-taxed, so Moseley neighbourhood police alongside Cllr Knowles swooped in with a removals vehicle to take it off the streets. Parked the wrong way and without lights, the weathered truck had certainly given into the seasons, leaving the leafy street looking scruffy.

 

Cllr Knowles told BirminghamLive: "I am pretty certain it has been there for 8 years.

 

"I couldn't quite understand, whenever I see a vehicle like that if they're taxed and have their MOT, you know that when it runs out they're going to have to remove it. The truck suddenly got re-taxed in 2018, I struggled with that for a while, until I realised that because it's a tow truck it comes up as MOT-exempt.

 

"When you're re-taxing a car, you can make a note that the truck is MOT exempt, this is how whoever owns it was clearly re-taxing it every year. They must have been declaring it as MOT exempt to re-tax it. The police said they couldn't do anything and the councils said it was taxed so wasn't abandoned.

 

"There was fly-tipping all around it." Cllr Knowles said she tried to track down the owner over the last five years, with no luck.

 

"A resident with a disabled child would struggle to get out if something else was parked there, it was just never quite on the boundary where police would consider it an obstruction, so they couldn't take proceedings for unnecessary obstruction."

 

 

Police removed the vehicle on Friday, February 3, notifying the owners. If the truck isn't collected it will be destroyed, Cllr Knowles told us.

 

"Thank you to Moseley police and Sergeant O'Keefe especially, he knew all the things I'd been trying to do. They moved in and they were really good," Cllr Knowles added.

 

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/rusty-tow-truck-left-rotting-26150268

[mushspeed]

Interesting..   .contrary to common belief.... all towtrucks in the UK  capable of carrying a load.... HAVE to be DOT tested before they can be taxed and used or parked on the highway ..... That is the Law ...

 

They are NOT  exempt 

 

How no body in the in the licencing department was bright enough to figure that out  astounds me !!

 

in my area  that would have been scooped up and gone within weeks...