2025 A Record-breaking Year For Removals, Growing Cost To Taxpayers

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – According to Environment Minister Zane Lightbourne, thousands of derelict vehicles have been removed from neighborhoods across New Providence in 2025, adding a cost to taxpayers.

Zane Lightbourne – Minister, Environment & Natural Resources

“This administration last year moved more than three thousand derelict vehicles in one year, and this year we have eclipsed that, and we are closer to four thousand. We have about 3,800 derelict vehicles that have been move out of neighborhoods.”

That puts the total at nearly seven thousand derelict vehicles removed over the past two years.

Cars left roadside, vacant lots, and in residential communities forces the government to step in when conditions become dangerous.

Lightbourne says each removal comes at a pretty hefty cost.

Zane Lightbourne – Minister, Environment & Natural Resources

“If you use an average of about $100 per vehicle, you can imagine the cost of removing vehicles out of communities, and that’s only that part of it.”

When you do the math, in 2024 more than three thousand vehicles removed, with an estimated cost of over $300,000 to taxpayers.

Last year, with government closing in on at least four thousand more,
the tab is now approaching $400,000.

Combined, that’s close to $700,000 dollars in public funds,
spent just to remove abandoned vehicles.

Zane Lightbourne – Minister, Environment & Natural Resources

“Yes, just New Providence. So these vehicles are coming in, it’s cheaper to get vehicles. You’d go to some properties, and you’ll see four and five cars in the yard, and people aren’t using these vehicles.”

“Sometimes they want to fix them, but the years go by, and in some cases they just deteriorate. So we’re trying to fight against this, but it’s extremely expensive because these are private contractors who have records that we depend on.”

Lightbourne says some vehicles are stripped for parts, others sit for years, and in some cases, they’re dumped deep into the bush which sometimes require cranes and specialized equipment, driving costs even higher.

The minister says the financial cost is only part of the story.

Zane Lightbourne – Minister, Environment & Natural Resources

“These vehicles support criminal activity, they support vectors and rodents, and they carry diseases, and sometimes they’re leaking substances into the ground, placed there.”

He says every abandoned car eventually becomes a public problem, and a taxpayer expense.

While Urban Renewal is assisting, Lightbourne urge vehicle owners to dispose of cars responsibly, warning that when derelict vehicles are left in communities, the cost doesn’t just disappear, it gets passed on to everyone.