200 cars dumped every day

The full scale of London's abandoned car problem can be revealed today.

More than 200 vehicles are abandoned each day at a clean-up cost of more than £6.6 million a year - an average of more than £200,000 for each of the 33 local authorities in the capital, according to a report today.

Figures show London is the car-dumping centre of Britain, accounting for almost two in five of abandoned cars. A survey in October found 6,581 cars were dumped. In one week in the month councils collected more than 2,000 cars.

Worst was Haringey with 578 followed by Newham with 465 cars. Keep Britain Tidy has joined forces with the Home Office and all boroughs to launch the Operation Scrap-It scheme.

The initiative saw every London borough undertake to remove all dumped vehicles within 72 hours. Since the London launch last year more than 17,000 vehicles have been collected free of charge.