Car dealer faces council legal department (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Car dealer faces council legal department

A TOWN CENTRE car dealer in Malmesbury faces legal action after it defied instructions from Wiltshire County Council to remove what the local authority says are illegally parked cars.

Hyams Autos was given until last Monday (November 28) to remove eight vehicles from parking bays adjacent to the footpath in Cross Hayes, at the rear of its business.

With the date having passed and the cars remaining up for sale and on the street the company now faces a court battle with the county council.

The issue has come to a head after the county council officially classified Cross Hayes as part of the highway - a status that Hyams has always disputed.

A letter to the firm from county council solicitor, Sarah Marshall, said: "Please ensure that the highway is free of all these obstructions (all your vehicles stored for sale) by November 28.

"If you fail to do so, the county council may take legal action against you resulting in the removal of the vehicles obstructing the highway or prosecute you for willful obstruction of the highway.

"If you fail to remove them, the county council may serve a notice on you requiring you to remove the obstruction.

"If having been served with this notice you fail to remove the obstruction the county council is entitled to carry out work to remove the obstruction and recover the costs in doing so from you."

The change of Cross Hayes status follows an investigation by the county council, leading to its director of environmental services signing a Highway Protocal on November 2.

Evidence supporting the change was taken from numerous local history books, maps and records.

These included Ordnance Survey Maps, the 1793 and 1810 copies of Andrews and Drury's maps of Wiltshire, an 1831 plan and report of the borough and the Indictments and Court Book of Malmesbury, 1750 to 1801.

Cllr John Thomson's predeccessor as county councillor for Malmesbury, Lesley Bennett, is well versed with the issue having tried during her period in office to have Hyams remove the cars from Cross Hayes.

She said: "Hyams has for years assumed its rights to stay there.

"Why should they have all these car parking spaces for free on land they don't own or maintain when everyone else in Malmesbury has to pay for it.

"It's pure cheek. They are blatantly abusing public space."

Paul Hyams refused to comment on the issue when asked, and the county council has also declined to reveal what its next step will be now the vehicles have not been moved.