Conserns for ELV from Europe
The Motor Vehicle Dismantlers’ Association has raised concern about the potential lack of support for tackling illegal activity in the end-of-life vehicle (ELV) recycling industry, after a UK champion of the ELV Directive lost his seat in the European elections.
Liberal Democrat Chris Davies had been an MEP for North West England, but was not favoured for another term by voters while his party also suffered a number of defeats across England in the European Parliament elections. Vehicle dismantlers fear a lack of support for tackling the illegal scrapping of cars Vehicle dismantlers fear a lack of support for tackling the illegal scrapping of cars And, following Mr Davies defeat, the MVDA said it had ‘lost an important champion’ of the ELV Directive who had ‘repeatedly voiced his concerns about its correct functioning’ and the ‘vast’ number of vehicles bypassing the Certificate of Destruction (CoD) system.
The MVDA claims that as many as 500,000 vehicles are being illegally scrapped by unlicensed dismantlers, leaving fully-licensed sites often facing higher operating costs and unable to offer higher prices to people selling their vehicles. The CoD is a legal document which proves a vehicle has been scrapped – and is required to be passed to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in order to verify that a vehicle has been dismantled. However, the MVDA claims the Directive is not being effectively enforced as CoDs are often not being issued, causing large numbers of vehicles to ‘disappear’
