DORSET Council has been accused of letting residents down over an abandoned van on the Ridgeway cycle path – which was later torched.

Local councillor Nick Ireland has asked for an explanation why the issue was passed from one department to another and still nothing happened.

He said: “We have completely failed our residents on this one. I trust this mess will get cleared immediately and those with the power to do so will address our inaction/inability to make a difference with some urgency. This was completely avoidable and we did nothing despite being notified and chased by both residents and myself.”

He says the lack of action while the van was intact, apart from a broken headlight, near the Came Down golf course, means council taxpayers will now have to pay the cost of clearing the cyclepath and making it safe. Efforts to tackle the vehicle involved both the council’s parking services team and ‘Place’ team as well as the police who said it was not their responsibility and passed the issue back to the council.

The abandoned car was first raised with Dorset Council by a member of the public, a cyclist, on September 10. The following day he was told they were not prepared to deal with it as the vehicle was taxed and suggested calling the police: “The police in no uncertain terms advised me it was not their responsibility. They told me it was the council’s problem. Passing the buck springs to mind,” said the man, who has asked not to be named.

“The vehicle is near the same place as a previous vehicle was about a year ago which was eventually burnt out. I suspect this vehicle will end up the same way causing environmental damage.”

The council say the jurisdiction for abandoned vehicles is with the parking team and, because the van was taxed and has an MoT, until the end of November, they have no legal mandate to have the vehicle removed. The only way they would have acted is if the police or the fire service deemed it as a potential problem or hazard. The council says its parking team have taken steps to notify the current registered keeper, who is not local, and re-checked with the police to see if there are any stolen markers on the vehicle.

Cllr Ireland says this is not the first time that a vehicle has been abandoned and then burnt out in the same spot. He says on that occasion the Dorset Council and Dorset Waste Partnership both refused to address the situation and the burnt out chassis remained there for six months before eventually being taken away.