ESSENTIAL as they are to our modern way of life, cars are nothing but trouble.

As soon as you buy a new one, its value plummets. From that moment on it will be a constant source of worry.

Cars are vulnerable to vandalism, theft and mechanical failure; a constant drain on your finances; and the focal point of all manner of frustration.

When you want to move, you are stuck in a traffic jam.

When you want to stop you cannot find a parking space.

Even at the end of their useful life, cars continue to cause headaches.

The number of vehicles dumped on York streets has rocketed from 260 three years ago to 800 today.

A similar trend is reported from other areas of North Yorkshire.

Those who abandon their cars in this way are the worst sort of litter louts.

Few sights are uglier than a battered hulk of metal left to rust in the gutter.

As is often the case, it is left to councils to clear up the mess, and to taxpayers to pick up the bill.

The sharp increase in the number of abandoned cars is blamed on an equally sharp drop in their scrap value.

That has led to the contrary practice of councils having to pay scrap dealers to remove each car.

Because it is illegal to dump a car, it should be the irresponsible owners who are made to pay. Tracing them, however, is often impossible.

Clearly the problem needs to be addressed before it becomes an even greater burden on the taxpayer.

City of York Council wants a change in the law to make the motor industry pay, and this seems a sensible way forward.

It would encourage manufacturers to put more effort into designing cars that can be recycled.

And if the industry had the nerve to pass on the cost, then at least it would be motorists, rather than the population at large, who had to pay.