Owners who leave derelict vehicles along public roads could face fines of at least EC$3,000 under proposed amendments intended to reduce littering and traffic obstruction across Antigua and Barbuda.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne said the government plans to amend the Litter Act to classify the roadside storage of unroadworthy vehicles as a form of littering.

“We’re going to change the law, and the parking of a vehicle that is not roadworthy at the side of the road will be constituted as littering,” Browne said during the Browne and Browne Show on Saturday.

The prime minister initially suggested a penalty of between EC$2,500 and EC$3,000 but later said the minimum fine should be EC$3,000 and could potentially be increased to EC$5,000.

Browne said stronger penalties were necessary to discourage people from abandoning vehicles along public roads, even when they have sufficient space to store them on private property.

The proposed amendment was discussed after Superintendent Elson Quammie, head of the Traffic Department, raised concerns about derelict vehicles obstructing secondary roads and contributing to congestion.

Quammie said motorists increasingly rely on secondary and community roads to avoid heavy traffic on the country’s main thoroughfares. However, some of those alternative routes are partially blocked by abandoned vehicles and other roadside obstructions.

He said an ongoing operation had already removed derelict vehicles from several communities, including Point and Villa, but some residents had resumed placing vehicles along the roads after the areas were cleared.

“We cannot be in every community at the same time,” Quammie said.

Browne also referred to reports of several vehicles being left along a newly constructed concrete road leading toward Yorks Bay and Hermitage, allegedly obstructing the movement of traffic.

The prime minister said removal operations would continue while the government prepared the legislative changes.

He also proposed that people who fail to pay the fine should be required to provide up to EC$5,000 worth of community service, including cleaning streets and planting trees.

“If we don’t criminalize them, at least there must be some form of compensation by way of labor,” Browne said.

No date was announced for the proposed amendment to be introduced in Parliament.

This article was originally published by Antigua News Room. Read the original article here: Derelict Vehicles Could Attract Fines of at Least EC$3,000 Under Planned Law.