VI records about 1000 derelict vehicles every year- Hon Vincent O. Wheatley
Speaking on the Virgin Islands Voice on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, Minister for Health and Social Development Hon Vincent O. Wheatley (R9) said, looking back at records to 2014 and 2015, nearly a thousand derelict vehicles are dealt with each year.
“The numbers are not going down, so I’m really puzzled as to why every single year we could find a thousand derelict cars. It’s a costly subject to deal with, but we’re up to it, and we’re going to make some reforms.”
The Derelict Vehicle Disposal Fee will provide the necessary funding
In June 2025, it was announced that a Derelict Vehicle Disposal Fee would be reintroduced on September 1, 2025, at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
“It’s a one time fee. We want to make sure that when you import a car that we collect some money so when you are finished with your car and you leave it on the side of the road, we’re happy to pick it up because it’s paid for already and we can have that car moved to a proper place for storage or when we send it overseas for storage,” Hon Wheatley explained.
The fees, he added, also vary according to the size and weight of the vehicles, and are as follows:
Category A 1500lbs and 3000lbs $60
Category B 3000lbs to 6000lbs $85
Category C 6000lbs or above $125
“It affects persons who are importing new vehicles, and when you go to renew your old vehicle, you currently have, we get you there. It is a fee for all persons because all vehicles go derelict at some point in time.”
The issue of derelict vehicles has been a “burden on the government purse” for a long time, Hon Wheatley said revealing, “It’s actually a twenty-four-year-old bill, but it just was never properly enacted but we’re enacting it now because we cannot have the place the way it is now, [with] derelict cars everywhere all the time.”
The fee, he said, will ensure the funding needed is available when derelict vehicles need to be moved, stored and transported out of the island.
We’re a tourist destination- Premier Wheatley
Meanwhile, Premier and Minister of Finance Dr the Hon Natalio D. Wheatley (R7) added, “We have a tourism product, we also live in communities that we want to see clean and pristine, and it’s very unsightly when persons just leave their vehicles on the side of the roads. They leave them in full view of everyone, and it doesn’t contribute to the place, you know, the image that we want to portray of ourselves.”
Premier Wheatley also said the derelicts can become breeding sites for mosquitoes and rodents, which leads to an uptick in mosquito-borne diseases.
He said people would then ask, “Why is the government not getting these derelict vehicles off the road?”
The Premier concurred that dealing with derelicts is expensive.
“It’s very expensive and even in terms of a proper site to store the derelicts, of course, I know in recent times you would have some request for proposals, et cetera, for derelict vessel sites and of course that cost money as well.”
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9 Responses to “VI records about 1000 derelict vehicles every year- Hon Vincent O. Wheatley ”
And now the new VI seaside attraction for tourists to Marvel at as they passby.
And to make matters worse we now have a plan to charge people so yet more vehicles will pile up in yards and on roads and in the bush and on our shores as people will not want to pay.
When it was free they did not get rid of vehicles.
How is this going to help the problem??
“It’s a one time fee. We want to make sure that when you import a car that we collect some money so when you are finished with your car and you leave it on the side of the road, we’re happy to pick it up because it’s paid for already and we can have that car moved to a proper place for storage or when we send it overseas for storage,”
Y'all up n down about recycling and refusing to listen and act to get it sorted out! Who don't hear will feel!!!