RESIDENTS are celebrating after an untaxed and abandoned car which has driven them to distraction for a year was finally removed.

The blue Ford Orion had been parked in Beech Crescent, Altham West, since last March, despite complaints to police, councillors and the DVLA.

Marie Ashton, of Whalley Road, said two notices warning that the car would be towed away were left on the vehicle, but both were removed before the car could be moved.

And when United Utilities arrived this week to carry out replacement work on the pipes in Beech Crescent workers had to put up safety fencing at either end of the vehicle.

But a spokesman for the utility company said the car had not restricted the work.

He said: "The car didn't cause that much of a problem to the people working there as we use 'slip lining' which means we can work underneath the road, very much in a similar way to key-hole surgery."

But the car was an inconvenience for Mrs Ashton and her husband Michael, 57, because people assumed the car was theirs as it is parked at the side of their home.

Mrs Ashton, 62, said: "It has been really annoying for us as people have kept ringing our doorbell and asking us to move it.

"United Utilities did the same when they arrived this week to carry out some work.

"I have complained to the police, the DVLA and local councillors, but the car has just stayed where it was.

"It was encouraging to read articles in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph about clamping down on car tax dodgers last year, but I'm afraid it looks like we got stuck with the one that got away." Inspector Phil Cottam, of Accrington police, said vehicles without tax discs are referred to the DVLA for prosecution, but those without an owner are referred to the local authority for removal.

He said: "If we have notified the council of the vehicle having been abandoned we have complied with our bit of how the system works."

Steve Todd, head of environmental health, said: "As far as our records show we have only known about this since late February.

"There has been a private company sticking seven-day notices on what they thought were abandoned vehicles, but we have not placed one of ours on this vehicle.

"I think our performance was pretty good."