Council taxpayers will be left to foot the bill for scrapping a looming pile of abandoned cars, says Hampshire MEP, Chris Huhne.

The Lib-Dem has hit out at Whitehall plans to make the last owners of low-value secondhand cars pay disposal costs.

Under a European Union directive, engine oil and other pollutants in cars must be recycled and made safe before vehicles are crushed.

But Mr Huhne said: "It just won't happen. Old cars will be dumped and reported as stolen so that owners avoid the costs of dismantling them."

He criticised the Government for taking the "least intelligent" way of implementing the EU law aimed at protecting the environment.

The Euro-MP backs an alternative option of increasing tax on new cars to pay for the scrapping of old ones.

Mr Huhne, who visited vehicle dismantlers in Holbury, on the Waterside, to find out how the industry is likely to respond to the challenge, warned: "The way ministers are proposing to implement the new directive will cause havoc in Hampshire."

The MEP estimated that as many as 4,000 extra cars could be dumped yearly across the county by owners unable or unwilling to pay the charges required to remove pollutants, estimated between £50 and £100 per vehicle.

He said: "Councils could face huge additional bills for dealing with the expected rise in abandoned cars and the Government is offering no new money to meet the problem.

"As a result, it will have to be passed on to council taxpayers."

A Hampshire County Council spokesman said: "We do anticipate seeing an increase in the number of abandoned vehicles as a result of the legislation, but we don't yet know how many.

"We're currently looking at potential solutions to deal with the issue in the longer term, but it is too early to say what these might be at this stage."

She said the estimated cost to Hampshire for dealing with abandoned vehicles was around £300,000 for 2003/04.

The EU End-of-Life Vehicles Directive agreed by the UK requires pollutants such as battery acid, oil and brake fluid to be removed from cars before they are dumped.

Eventually, manufacturers will pay the cost of scrapping all vehicles, but each EU government has a choice about how to deal with cars sold before 2002.