AN 83-YEAR-OLD council tenant told of his telephone trauma with Lewisham Council after a car was dumped in his back garden.

Charles Osborne was sitting in his living room writing Christmas cards last Thursday afternoon when he heard a huge crashing sound outside.

Peering through the window of his Fordyce Road home, he was astonished to see a Fiat hatchback in his flower bed.

The Lewisham pensioner immediately called the authority to report the vehicle but says he was amazed when he was told by the person on the end of the phone that, as the car had been dumped, it was a police job and he should call them.

The police visited Mr Osborne later and told him it was the council's duty to collect dumped cars. They called the authority to ask for it to be taken away.

Mr Osborne said: "The police knew it's the council's job. I do, and everyone else does. But it's a different matter to actually get them out here and do their job. They just passed the buck.

"I'm 83-years-old do they expect me to push it down to the council pound myself?"

Four days later the E-reg vehicle, which had been broken into, was collected, leaving Mr Osborne with a 10-foot gap in his garden fence.

The widower, who has a son and a daughter who live in Sidcup and Erith respectively, said: "I don't want to bother my children, I just want the council to fix the fence. But I have been phoning them for days and they just leave me on hold."

He said he is unimpressed by the council's manoeuvring, which last month saw the authority make a U-turn on their funding policy for the collection of dumped cars, slashing the budget by £43,000 a year.

The change of heart followed a pledge to join the Government's battle against dumping. At the time, council leader Chris Roberts described the problem as "littering on a grand scale", and was joined by the mayor Councillor Dave Sullivan in giving support.

Deputy for the environment Councillor Paul Morris said: "If Mr Osborne was told it wasn't the council's problem, I can only apologise on behalf of the council, and confirm I will be looking into the matter.

"The vehicle was originally reported abandoned and then became a hazard when someone broke into it and released the handbrake. The vehicle has now been removed."

Dumped cars can be reported to Lewisham Council's Envirocall hotline on 020 8314 7171.

December 13, 2001 13:00