Street that turned into a showroom

Despite complaints from residents and traders, little is likely to be done to clean-up the area, even though some of the people selling the vehicles are clearly flouting the law.

Sackville Road, New Church Road and Elm Grove in Brighton have also become second hand centres with bargain hunters only having to drive down any of the streets to find anything from a £200 banger to a £3,500 family saloon.

Although all of the vehicles are on public highways, in many cases road tax is an optional extra in the deal.

Brighton and Hove councillor Brian Oxley, whose Westbourne ward includes part of Kingsway, said he has received complaints about the practice since he was elected five years ago.

He said: "They are all over my ward and I get a huge amount of complaints from people because they don't want the roads outside their homes looking like showrooms.

"We've had no end of rows with the council about lack of parking and the new parking proposals and here we have cars which could be in a showroom and not taking up space on the road.

"Not so long ago I took this up with the council and police and they said they couldn't do anything as long as the cars are taxed and roadworthy."

Dinah Warr, of the Elm Grove Vacuum Centre, said she wrote to Brighton and Hove Council to complain about six cars which were parked on the pavement near her shop for two months during the summer.

She said: "It was like a showroom. I am concerned about the safety of it and it clogs up the parking - that puts off our customers.

"A couple of the cars didn't have any tax discs, which really irritates me and they obviously hadn't paid any business rates."

Chris Buckingham, a 42-year-old insurer who lives in Hove, said: "I resent people who carry on a trade which affects parking. People often complain about dumped cars but all we have here are dumped cars, which are changed every so often when they get sold.

"It's one of those things people accept but they shouldn't."

There were bargains galore when we visited Kingsway, Sackville Road, Nevill Road, Elm Grove and New Church Road. We saw 39 vehicles for sale by 23 different people.

Although some of the cars seemed to be genuine one-off private sales, we discovered six people were selling 23 cars between them.

In all cases there was no sign the vehicles were being sold by traders as required by Business Advertisements Disclosure Order under the Fair Trading Act 1973.

A spokeswoman for Brighton and Hove Council's trading standards department said a trade seller was defined as someone who conducted their business from premises such as a garage or forecourt.

It would also include people who have sold a "high volume" of cars in a relatively short period of time.

Although the department is responsible for enforcing the Advertisement Disclosure Order, the spokeswoman said it was not a high priority.

She said: "As far as we are concerned any adverts in the car must be accurate and if they are trade sales they should specify that in the advert.

"If a trader is not doing this, we would advise them in the first instance. If they continued not to make it clear we would then look to take further enforcement action, which may result in prosecution.

"As far as I can recollect we haven't prosecuted because it's not the most serious crime and we have to look at our resources. We do regular monitoring mostly through newspaper adverts but not often of roadside sales as we don't have time to put into it."

Sussex Police can only take action if vehicles are causing an obstruction by being parked on pavements or grass verges near roads.

A spokesman said the force had the power to tow these away. Vehicles on the road without road fund licences were not the force's responsibility but were reported to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority.

We tracked down four traders who were using the streets to sell cars and have not told their customers they are in the motor trade.

David Evans of York Road, Worthing, is a trade seller in the local Press but the three cars he was offering for sale in Kingsway did not mention this. They included a Vauxhall Nova, which did not have a road fund licence.

Mr Evans told The Argus the licence disc was stolen and he did not know the cars should be clearly marked as trade sales.

He said: "I suppose it makes sense. I think I will do it because it's the sensible thing. It never occurred to me."

Korede Consultancy, of Hillcroft, Portslade, which also advertises as a trade seller, was offering two cars in Kingsway including a Vauxhall Astra van and Nissan Bluebird with neither road fund licences or trade sellers' marks displayed.

A spokesman for Korede Consultancy said he was also unaware of the trading standards law but promised to "do something about it".

KRT Trading and Trade Car Direct, of Court Farm Road, Brighton, was offering a Ford Fiesta for sale in Kingsway.

The biggest player in Brighton and Hove's burgeoning roadside second-hand business was John Gifford, who was selling seven cars on the streets.

They included four cars without a road fund licences and priced between £400 and £895, including a badly smashed-up Mitsubishi Lancer, When we called Mr Gifford he first of all denied the vehicles were his, saying: "There's seven or eight down there this morning but none of them are mine."

When pressed, he said: "I've been doing this for 20 years, it doesn't offend any legislation but, if people complain, I drive it straight away on a non-confrontational basis."

The Cabinet member for consumer affairs, Jeane Lepper, said: "This is something I will be following up. I am concerned valuable parking space is being taken up by people carrying on a commercial business."