Efforts stepped up to remove derelict vehicles by the roadside |17 August 2020

Efforts are being stepped up to have derelict vehicles removed by the roadside (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

Derelict vehicles found along primary and secondary roads on Mahé and Praslin will be removed, brought to a designated area and eventually be scrapped if the owner fails to claim it back within a specific number of days.

This joint exercise by the police, the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change and the Land Waste Management Agency (LWMA) will be made possible now that the Environment Trust Fund has granted R550,000 for the purpose.

The signing for the grant took place last Friday at the environment department, Botanical Gardens between the principal secretary for Environment, Alain Decomarmond, the deputy chief of LWMA, Rahul Mangroo, and the assistant commissioner of police Ted Barbe.

“The vehicles once removed from the road, will be place at a designated area in Providence for a period of around 28 days, considered as ample time for the owners to claim them back. If no one claims back his or her vehicle during that time, it will be dumped at the nearby scrapyard. In addition to bearing all the costs associated with the disposal of the vehicles, the owners will also face prosecution for failing in the first place to remove those vehicles from previous warnings.

PS Decomarmond said that it had been a while since the department of environment has been issuing warnings and cautions to owners of derelict vehicles for them to remove these eyesores off the roads and now the time has come for action to be taken for failing to comply.

“It is the responsibility of the owners to either dispose of their vehicles or put them in a garage if they are to be fixed rather than leaving them idle by the roadside,” PS Decomarmond said, noting that action that will be taken will hopefully serve as a deterrent to others.

Assistant superintendent Antoine Denousse from the Seychelles Police said that around 50 derelict vehicles have been identified on Mahé and Praslin of which most of their owners have been issued with a removal notice.

He claimed that the cost for the disposal of a vehicle is very substantial and the police are very happy that the Environment Trust Fund has been able to finance the project to once and for all remove those derelict vehicles off the road.

He added that the police will not be responsible for any damage that may occur to vehicles while being removed.

He also said that derelict vehicles deemed as eye sores even on private property may also be targeted as they are disfiguring the surrounding environment.

Patrick Joubert