UNWANTED cars are being towed away for free over the next two weeks in a bid to clean up Pendle's streets.

Fed up with abandoned cars becoming a magnet for drug abuse, vandalism, prostitution and arson, community leaders, police and firefighters have signed up to a new scheme to take unwanted vehicles down to the scrap yard.

People who want to get rid of an old banger are being asked to call a hotline and Pendle Borough Council will collect it free of charge.

Nelson fire station commander Nick Isherwood said: "A few years ago Pendle averaged between 70 to 80 deliberate vehicle fires each year with each one costing around £5,000 to deal with. That equated to between £300,000 and £500,000 a year.

"Projects like this are starting to reduce that burden but there is still a fair way to go to eradicate this scourge of society."

People who contact the hotline and leave their details will be visited and asked to confirm ownership. The car will then be removed and Pendle Council will absorb the cost.

It is part of a nationwide amnesty being spearheaded by the Keep Britain Tidy campaign which hopes to draw attention to the problems caused by dumped cars.

Chief executive Alan Woods said: "When people dump their old banger, they don't realise that it lowers the tone of their neighbourhood and becomes a target for anti-social behaviour.

"We already have 1.5million cases of criminal damage against cars each year and over one million fires and false alarms.

"For every second an abandoned vehicle is left rotting on our streets, those figures will spiral."

Anyone who wants to get rid of a car until January 28 should contact the nuisance vehicle hotline on 01282 661163.