An ex Soviet Union derelict truck that has been rusting away on the streets of Brockley, South East London, has been removed and is set to be destroyed by Lewisham council.
The Zil-131 Cargo truck which was built in 1967 and weighs approximately 3.5 tons was designed by the Soviet Union which was used as a platform for the 9P138 rocket launcher.
The cargo truck has never been moved since it arrived from its unknown owner in 2006.
The truck had valid road tax that was renewed by its anonymous holder yearly, which cost the owner over four grand in tax costs.
However after various warnings and unpaid road tax this year, the vehicle was removed today and set to be crushed later this week.
Local residents who live on the same street were relieved to see the beastly army truck off their road.
Samantha Taison, local resident said:
“Finally its gone, I’ve been living here for 26 years and have never seen anything so ghastly, it was the first thing I’d see out of my window. So yes it’s happy days for the people who live on this street.”
Passers-by who walk down Avignon road, were sad to see the truck go. Local resident, James Williams, said:
“I walk past this street almost everyday, I’m quite sad to see it go, it was nice to look at over the years.”
DVLA tax officer, Robert Berkley, stated it’s the first time he has had to deal with a Russian truck, which took over two hours to remove and eight members of staff to help confiscate the truck.
“I’ve never had to deal with such a heavy truck, it’s taken us around two and half hours to get it to move,” he said.
Lewisham Councillor, Paul Bell stated there was no option but to keep tabs on the truck after years of complaints.
“We’ve had numerous complaints and queries from residents and buyers, but we had no reason to remove the vehicle due to its eligible road tax, all we could do was keep tabs and try to find the owner. The owner of the vehicle doesn’t seem to live here in the UK now, however his road tax hasn’t been renewed for weeks so the DVLA had no choice in removing the vehicle,” he said.
It remains to be seen whether the owner will respond to its vehicles removal.
Leave a Reply