It has emerged that the car left by the Merrywalks roundabout in protest against climate change was taken by police - not the activist who put it there or the council that owned the land.
Pictures taken on the night of Wednesday, February 6 show the car, which first appeared by the roundabout in November, being hoisted onto the back of a lorry under the watch of a nearby police car.
A spokesperson for Gloucestershire Constabulary said: "I can confirm that an untaxed Volkswagen car was removed by police from Merrywalks, Stroud on February 6.
"The owner was advised and the vehicle will go to salvage disposal as authorised by the DVLA."
Police intervention came as the land's owner, Gloucestershire County Council, had been preparing to get rid of the car, serving notice to the Extinction Rebellion activist three months after he put the car there to warn passing drivers against inaction over climate change.
A spokesperson for Gloucestershire County Council, said: “Although the county council served notice on the owner of the vehicle, we did not arrange for the vehicle to be removed and naturally assumed that the owner had removed it himself.’’
Some had wondered why Stroud District Council had not removed the car, given abandoned vehicles are the responsibility of district councils in Gloucestershire.
But a spokesperson said: “The vehicle did not meet the criteria set out by DEFRA to be treated as abandoned. Therefore we did not have legal power to remove it.”
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