RECENT interactions with both the police and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority have convinced me that driving a vehicle without any road tax and parking it on a public highway is no longer an actionable offence.

On March 22, I rang the DVLA to report an untaxed vehicle on my road (a neighbour has already reported this three times to the police) in Accrington. They advised me to put all the relevant details in writing, which I subsequently did. On April 28, I wrote to them again, as the offending vehicle was still thereon my road in Accrington, and still in daily use.

I received a letter informing me that my correspondence has been passed on to the enforcement officer. Now, there is a second untaxed vehicle on my road, being driven by the same driver of the first untaxed vehicle (which, by the way, is also still in use).

'Enough is enough,' I thought and rang the police, who took details of both vehicles and told me they would send a patrol car up.

Guess what? Yes, that's right. Both vehicles (one still in daily use and one parked on a public highway) remain without the road tax, that we are led to believe, by the authorities, is a legal requirement of ownership of a car.

Of course, this also begs the question of whether either of these vehicles is insured. But then, who cares? The DVLA and police certainly do not. Why, then, should we? Let us all follow the same example and not renew our vehicle road tax. If this driver can flout the law and get away with it, why can't we all?

So, fellow drivers, the moral of the story is, it is a fallacy that the authorities act upon information received and then take the appropriate action.

It would appear that they neither care nor are interested. Let's just hope they can justify their lack of interest and action if either, or both, of these vehicles is involved in an accident and found to be uninsured. Small comfort to the victim!

Name and address received.

Footnote: Sergeant Stuart Isherwood of Accrington Police said: "The DVLA clampers come here on a fairly regular basis and work in partnership with the police to target persistent offenders. They are due here for a month any time now.

"We can only report the fact we have seen it to the DVLA. We can 't remove vehicles ourselves.

"Unfortunately, the police don't have the resources to employ officers just to report people for not having road tax."