A politician was chased along a village street by a furious car owner after he discovered that his vehicle had been clamped.Peasedown St John councillor Sarah Bevan was accosted as she took part in an Environmental Action Day (EAD) led by council enforcement officers, police and fire officials.

Working Together: Cllr Sarah Bevan, Simon Bailey (Avon Fire and Rescue) and Cllr Nathan Hartley.

Among the team's targets were untaxed and offending vehicles and other problems in the village.

And while most villagers welcomed the day of action on Monday, one man took exception.

"We found a lot of untaxed vehicles and names were taken and clamping was organised," Cllr Bevan said.

"This man pursued us around an estate and got out of his car and left the engine running as he became very aggressive with us.

"He kept saying that he didn't need to tax his car. But I said he had kept the car on the road for longer than a minute - we had seen it two hours ago.

"The man went away, but returned a few minutes later. He was swearing and being difficult. But the DVLA man with us was really calm and read him a caution.

"I was very impressed with the professional nature of the official in an intimidating situation. All the people on the action day were consummate professionals."

It was the latest EAD to be held across Bath and North East Somerset, with similar events having taken place in Bath, Radstock, Keynsham and other areas in recent years.

The enforcement team patrolled the streets of Peasedown in groups to hand out fixed penalty notices for littering, trace untaxed and abandoned vehicles, inspect fire risks and look for graffiti which needed to be cleaned.

B &NES enforcement manager Philip Morris said the day - like those that had taken place previously - had been very successful.

"We use a multi-agency approach to areas of concern to the council, the police, councillors and the general public," he said.

"It is aimed at enhancing areas with whatever agencies need to be involved.

"We recorded 17 vehicle offences, such as having no licence or tax, dealt with seven tenancy issues such as untidy gardens, contaminated land and a possible arson, where furniture had been left on the ground and burned.

"We also dealt with four graffiti issues, three of littering and fly-tipping and clamped three vehicles without road fund licences."

Altogether, the team dealt with 48 offences.

Mr Morris said that previous action days had resulted in visible results.

He said: "When we have gone back afterwards, there has been action.We have flagged it up and it has been dealt with. One area had massive graffiti problems but when we returned it had all been cleared up.

"We went to Writhlington last year, and went back later to find that 99.9 per cent of the problems had been dealt with."

(This article was first published in the Somerset Guardian, 14th June 07. It can be found at http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=150908&command=displayContent&sourceNode=150824&contentPK=17555222&folderPk=84816&pNodeId=150813)