Dodgy parking firms pictured illegally dumping cars together in boggy fields near Gatwick
Fresh pics come after cops warn holidaymakers over 'rogue' airport parking companies plaguing residents of local towns
MORE shocking photos of muddy cars dumped by cowboy parking firms have emerged– amid a call for “proper parking spaces” near Gatwick Airport.
In one picture a car is splattered with mud, while another is covered by undergrowth and tree branches.
The cars are parked so closely together that their bumpers touch.
The fresh images come after cops warn holidaymakers over “rogue” airport parking companies, having discovered 1,000 vehicles covered in mud in a field close to Gatwick in Crawley, West Sussex.
Parking firm Airparks say the discovery highlights the need to build more spaces at the country’s second busiest airport, and that doing so would help beat “the cowboys”.
Airparks also say that the police discovery, last month, was not an “isolated incident” and has submitted plans to build an extra 3,000 spaces.
However, the company is facing problems because of the area’s Local Plan and Gatwick’s airport car parking strategy.
Chief Executive, Howard Dove, said: “To cater for Gatwick’s unprecedented growth in passenger number, at least 6,000 new parking spaces are needed – now.”
“Unauthorised parking has increased significantly, yet there are no plans in the pipeline to create more spaces, despite the fast-rate of increasing customers at the airport,” he added.
Dove said his company had made the case for new spaces to address the chronic shortage, but revealed that none had been added.
“This means that airport visitors are forced to park in unauthorised spaces to detriment of their purse and vehicle, whilst ‘dumped’ cars around the airport plague residents of local towns,” he said.
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Dove added that he hoped Crawley Council will take the “logical view” and agree with the position that “more spaces are a necessity”.
Cops found hundreds of keys to vehicles in the boot of an open and unlocked car when they searched the area in June.
Some had their keys left in envelopes on the windscreens of the cars they belonged to, in full view of passerbys.
Officers are also looking into reports of theft, criminal damage and excess mileage on cars left with unnamed parking forms within the past few months.