just out of interest my wipers were stuck up the windscreen , I got a mechanic mate to look at them and he deduced that they were in fact seized up ! very interesting to note that the wiper motor has a thermal overload on it which trips when the wipers seize , so no fuse will blow , it does however cause the battery to drain even when the ignition is off as the wiper thermal overload re-connects and tries again to get the wipers to work, it will do this till the battery is completely flat , just trying to get the wipers in the park position ! so a bit of wd 40 and a bit of gentle freeing and we were away ! the cause we deduced was never using the car in the rain for 2 years ? so make sure you pack the wiper gaiters with plenty of grease and you won't have a problem , thanks for all the comments ......