Oi! You can't park there! Police promise action on car on pavement beside A96 at Inverness

An apparently abandoned car obstructing a pavement and cycle lane beside the busy A96 Inverness to Nairn road will be removed soon, Police Scotland have been promised.

The silver Vauxhall saloon appeared at the weekend and police attached Police Aware tape to the vehicle at some stage later.

Concerned resident Peter Harkins asked the Inverness Courier: "How, I wonder can an abandoned (broken down?) car, with ‘Police Aware' tape around it be allowed to straddle the full width of the pavement/cycle lane on the A96, between Culloden and Tesco roundabouts, for several days?

"It is forcing people to go on to the very busy road to negotiate it. Is it like so many things nowadays down to cost, whose responsibility and someone else’s problem? Of course it shouldn’t even be there in the first place!!"

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Around 1.55pm on Tuesday, June 27, 2023 a report was made of a car obstructing a cycle path/pavement near the A96 Eastfield Retail Park, Inverness.

"The vehicle had broken down. The owner has been contacted and removal arranged."

Despite this report, witnesses have seen the vehicle there since Sunday.

For general guidance Police Scotland said it is the responsibility of the owner of a vehicle to arrange removal following a breakdown or crash.

Police can remove a vehicle from a carriageway if it is a dangerous position, but the local authority may have a duty to remove a vehicle if it is subsequently deemed to be an abandoned vehicle.

There have been cases recently of apparently abandoned cars almost becoming roadside landmarks as they languish, adorned in police tape, at the roadside.

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