NOVEMBER 26 was a cold morning in Wincanton. Fog was in the air as people made their way to work, school, or elsewhere.

But in Dyke’s Way, running through the slowly waking Wincanton Business Park, the cold quiet of that early winter day was broken at around 6.30am when a car crashed, flipping onto its roof, before coming to rest.

The silence returned, before the sound of sirens cut through the fog as emergency services attended.

One person was taken to hospital with ‘non-life changing injuries’, according to Avon and Somerset Police.

However, another vehicle was involved in the incident, if not the crash itself.

A Fiat Punto, presumably parked on Dyke’s Way when the crash occurred, was damaged.

A front wheel was left flat, the car itself left half-on, half-off the verge.

Later that morning, as the upturned car was removed from the road on the back of a recovery truck, the Punto was ignored, left in that indecisive position, half-on, half-off – neither on the road, nor off it.

And there it sat for weeks.

Some time later, police tape was left strewn across the vehicle after it appeared to have been damaged further – a wing mirror almost completely severed, the windscreen smashed – presumably by vandals who took advantage of its prone position.

Still, it was left, a relic of the incident on that cold November morning.

It was, it appeared, the forgotten car.

READ MORE: Car ends up on roof after crash in Dyke’s Way, Wincanton

Christmas came and went, frost and snow filled the air as the county endured a January cold snap that saw temperatures drop to around -10C – yet the car remained.

Unwanted, unloved, abandoned.

Then, a change. A notice was placed under the windscreen wiper, beneath the cobweb of cracks left by the vandal’s attack.

But, far from being a love letter or a note promising imminent recovery, it was a warning.

“This is an untaxed vehicle,” it read. “An offence report has been passed to the DVLA for enforcement action.”

Perhaps ‘enforcement action’ meant an end was in sight? Would a truck from the DVLA collect the car and take it to a pound, where at least it might soon be sold for repair and a return to the open road?

Alas not. At least not yet.

Your Blackmore Vale started making calls about the forgotten car.

The police said it was over to South Somerset District Council, who said it had not been reported to them, and round and round we went.

The DVLA would not speak about specific incidents, but assured us they had powers available to them to address such abandoned – forgotten – vehicles.

On February 17, another notice appeared on the windscreen. SSDC was now aware of the vehicle and the notice said it was ‘under investigation’.

We reported it using the council’s online portal.

But still the car remained strewn on Dyke’s Way.

The end of February was now looming into view. The dawn sunshine reflecting off the dusty black paintwork each morning resembled more the spring than the start of winter.

WM08XSJ, with its silver door handles and alloy wheels, had become a feature of the route, an art installation.

The Forgotten Car.

But then, it was gone.

On the morning of Monday, February 20, the Forgotten Car was removed from Dyke’s Way.

Our reporting may well have helped move the system along and get the prone vehicle taken away.

Your New Blackmore Vale didn’t witness it being taken. It was possibly for the best, for we, like many others using the route regularly had, in some strange way, become attached to that car.

Here’s hoping it drives on to better days.