UPDATE: Clamping to be outlawed in England and Wales

Confused.com's Owe Carter offers his opinion on the proposed private-land clamping ban, and would like to hear yours.

 
Thankfully, this'll soon be a thing of the past

A few weeks ago, we pondered as to whether there should be tougher laws concerning wheel clamping on private land. And now the Home Office has announced that clamping and towing on private land is to be outlawed.

This proposal will form part of the coalition government's Freedom Bill, which is to be introduced in November.

This doesn't mean that parking on private land will become a free for all. Local councils and the police will retain power to immobilise and remove vehicles parked on private land in exceptional circumstances, such as if an important thoroughfare is blocked.

However, clampers and landowners taking the law into their own hands could face fines or even custodial sentences.

The principal rationale for the proposed ban is to round up the cowboys. Announcing these proposals, the Minister for Equalities and Criminal Information, Lynne Featherstone, declared that the government is "committed to ending the menace of rogue private sector wheel-clampers once and for all".

An upshot of the ban is likely to mean that more people park without consideration on private property. Although, let's be honest: this is a lesser evil than the systematic targeting of more vulnerable members of society by unscrupulous clampers. And it still leaves landowners with the remedy of intervention from the local authorities in the case of genuinely ridiculous parking.

In any case, it's difficult not to conclude that the government is making policy decisions based on what they read in this blog. Which should mean that there are proposals on their way to allow learner drivers to practice on the motorway, and an impending review of the national speed limit. Watch this space!

If you'd like to share your opinions on the clamping ban, feel free to comment below.

Comments

[Pedantic Vindictiveman]

Bloody ridiculous, people don't park with any consideration now, you only have to look at disabled spaces taken by people who shouldn't be there, or grass verges clearly stating no parking at any time, full litter when they leave as well, it's never been complicated, don't park where you shouldn't and you dont get clamped or towed, nation of *********.

[Owe]

Hello Pedantic Vindictiveman. As much as I appreciate that you're getting involved in the debate, I'd like to point out that it's a family blog, and politely request that we keep the swearing to a minimum.

Also it's worth noting that the clamping ban applies to private landowners, and won't affect local councils' power to clamp and tow.

[Clare Brown]

it's good news. My dad got caught out by a tiny hand written sign when he parked on what he thought was waste ground and went to pick up my mum from a clinic. In the 5 minutes he was gone, his car had been clamped and it cost him over £300 to get it back from a warehouse the other side of town. The clampers were very rude and unhelpful, even though he paid straight away. It was clear they would rather have kept his car for longer in order to ramp up the charges. I'm no Tory but with them on this one.

[Fred Topham]

I live in a block of flats and as a Director of the Management Company I introduced clamping through a reputable firm because non-residents using the local railway station parked their cars in our car park thereby preventing residents from parking. Therefore, I believe in clamping on private property but I agree it should be properly controlled and licensed.

[Peter Ward]

This situation arose due to the unscrupulous cowboy clampers who jumped on the bandwaggon to earn quick bucks. I can understand the annoyance of having persons parking indiscriminately on private land and believe a system could be designed whereby the number of clamping firms be reduced and any remaining should be licenced, regulated and controlled to act in a fair and reasonable manner with regard to clear and obvious signage and a responsible manner in dealing with offenders. Regulations should include a maximum payment allowed to be charged for release of a clamp and not the extortionate charges being made at the present time. (I would suggest a maximum of £25 is sufficient to cover any costs involved) Not everyone can afford to carry around sums of £200 - £300 or even be in a position to obtain that amount very quickly. At no time should a vehicle be towed away from private land without authority from the police and only if it is causing a severe obstruction. Some of the stories one hears of disabled people or women with young children being stranded because of these cowboys is beyond belief. What is wrong with taking their name and address and reg no. so they can pay at a later date.

[laurie]

my son decided to go back to college recently to improve his employment chances. On the first day, he parked in the college car park, bought a ticket from the machine, put it in the windscreen and then went into college.
His course finished a little late, and as he was walking back to his car, a wheel clamper was just about to put the clamp on his car. His parking ticket had run out by 8 minutes! My son argued that surely he could be allowed a little grace, as it was only 8 mins overdue, not as if he didnt have a ticket at all, but the clamper was typical bad attitude cowboy style, and put the clamp on the car then demanded my son pay £150 to take it off.
My son was going to college to improve his job hunting, and as such didnt have £150 spare to pay the clampers, so he phoned the college and they loaned my son the money so he could get his car unclamped.
So even in places that are supposedly regulated for illegal parking, these problems still exist.

Ive been late back to my car in the past, and the ticket has run out, these things happen, but the local council took notice of the fact that my penalty ticket was written only 15 mins after my ticket ran out and cancelled the penalty.
Common sense prevailed.

Thats what is missing in most cases, common sense and a little bit of give and take on both sides.
You will always get pig headed ignorant people who think they have the right to park anywhere they like, and its these people who clamping etc should be applied to, so a fair, properly regulated system should be allowed by private landowners to enforce this on this minority in the car owning world.

[Lou]

It's always the few that ruin things for the many! I totally agree that clamping should be banned because it can't be properly regulated and it's not something you can dispute, because you have to get your car unclamped before they tow it! I once parked in what I thought was a marked bay in a car park and was gone from my car for four minutes, a man was waiting in his van and clamped me - he couldn't just tell me not to park there, he had to clamp me! When I asked him that he was very rude and sarcastic and said he wasn't a parking attendant. He also only took cash payment - and then told me once the fine was paid I could leave my car there all day if I wanted to!! So good riddance I say!

[A Foster]

I think there is a case to continue clamping vehicles parked on private property and that the Govenment is taking the easy way out. Clamping companies should not be able to be used unless they are licenced to do so and there should be set charges of £50 to unclamp a vehicle and unless the vehicle is blocking an access it should never be taken away.
If a rogue company tries to charge anything above this the police should have the powers to step in and arrest the illegally working clampers / company and make them unclamp the vehicle at no cost to the owner.
In America there are many clamping companies but they are very tightly regulated and licenced so they don't have this problem.

[S Kirkpatrick]

I live in a dead end road with a block of maisonettes at the end and my house opposite. There are ten flats and parking for 4 cars. Although my neighbour and myself have a private shared drive with garages at the end, you can bet any money we can't park or get off our drive. The police will not remove illegally parked cars from private property although we can move them (without damaging)onto road and phone police to say they are blocking the public road. The coucil tow-away closes at 11pm so again if I come back after 11 I have to wait till morning to park on my own property. If there was a fire (God forbid) what would happen to my family and house if I cannot find the inconsiderate driver???

[beryl]

My daughter parked on an old shut down doctors surgery that was going to be demolished by the council. other cars were parked here. she came out of the chemist and was clamped. cost nearly £300. the sign was about 20ft off the ground and small. The clamper was very rude and disrepectful to her. She had to phone me to use my card before they would take off the clamp. few weeks later the clamping company were in the local paper. the clamper was not registered. did she get her money back. NO

[Ralph]

Clampers are simply one group of (bullying) people taking advantage of another (selfish) group. They should realise all land belongs to someone. Equally, a car park is a business. Clampers are a necessary evil that simply need some control. The selfish ones (who think they are above any moral code of behaviour) have won - so now we all risk suffering blocked driveways.
Clampers should be employed to deal with those selfish people who obstruct urban streets all day in order to avoid paying car park tolls.

[suzanne]

I have mixed feelings about this. I object strongly to the obscene amounts they charge to release your car, as well as charges for unclamped cars given tickets. but do think it will leave things open to abuse with people parking without due consideration. It is difficult to police but I do agree with other commenteers that set fees & a bit of common sense would help tremendously.

[Joe]

I rent a garage to get to it there is a short driveway.
Constantly people park so I cannot use the driveway or even in front of the garage blocking access and in one case so I could not get out.
The Police and the Council are no use as it is not an important access and it is private land.
The Law of England says you can sue for Trespass and exercise the Rule of Distress damage feasant in the case of a trespasser who trespasses onto another’s land, the owner of the land is entitled to seize and detain any property which the trespasser brought onto the land with him and as trespass to land is actionable per se until the trespasser pays for the damage caused.

[harrylands]

a defendant in court has to make a statement of his income.One put down that he earned £1,ooo a week ?his job a car clamper

[Plato]

We need some 'joined up thinking' here.
I once had my garage blocked for over a week by someone who was unknown. It dissapeared while I was at work.
I could do nothing about it while it was there.
Clamping was brought in to solve this kind of problem, but without any thought about where it would lead.
I agree that we should get rid of clamping, but not without putting something in place to protect the private individuals from equally bullying space abusers.

[Foxy]

If someone is blocking access as described in the posts so far, unless I could resonably find where the driver was, I would have no hesitation in breaking the window and releasing the hand brake to move it. If it was impossible to push because of the position and steering lock, I would use whatever means I could to move it.

[russell]

can they clamp my car while in my garage the door was open