Wheel clamping finally banned in England & Wales

[cwathen]

Surprised that more of a deal wasn't made of this in the news considering how much this topic has been discussed over the years, but it was announced last month that the long awaited wheel clamping ban, which has been coming 'later this year' for about the last 3 years, is finally a reality.

From 1st October 2012, wheel clamping and towing away on private land will be illegal in England and Wales (brining us in to line with a similar ban made in Scotland way back in 1991), with potential prison sentences for those who practice it. The only exceptions will be local authorities and the police (and of course those who clamp their own cars for security reasons).

Whilst it is right that landowners should have the right to protect their land, and legitimate clamping operations are a way of doing it, this industry has shown time and time again that it is either unable or unwiling to police itself with hoards of cowboy operators continuing to rip people off with insane fines and storage fees, and no proper process for appealing them (after all they've clamped your car - it's not like you can drive home and write an angry letter like you can with a parking ticket. And once you've paid to have it released, you can pretty much forget about any further recourse as you've effectively admitted liability by paying the fine).

The government has also finally admitted that they cannot effectively regulate them either and bringing clampers under the SIA (a body I have no faith in either - considering it was established primarily to stop dodgy doormen an amazing number of violent thugs continue to be employed as such despite wearing the little blue armband on their overcoat) has made no difference.

A great day for democracy and common sense in my book, and a rare example of something very wrong with our country being put right.

[Beep]

Hello NCALT. What a lovely presentation you're offering!

About time though

[barcode]

I have never seen ANY local council clamp anyone in Scotland yet, expect for not paying there road tax.

[JAS84]

Good riddance to the cowboy clampers. Not a moment too soon.

[Gavin Scott]

I have never seen ANY local council clamp anyone in Scotland yet, expect for not paying there road tax.

Duh. Its banned in Scotland.

[Pete]

I have never seen ANY local council clamp anyone in Scotland yet, expect for not paying there road tax.

Duh. Its banned in Scotland.

Private clamping is banned in Scotland. The Government can still clamp you but, as barcrud says, it tends to be only the DVLA who clamp road-tax avoiders up here.

[Gavin Scott]

I have never seen ANY local council clamp anyone in Scotland yet, expect for not paying there road tax.

Duh. Its banned in Scotland.

Private clamping is banned in Scotland. The Government can still clamp you but, as barcrud says, it tends to be only the DVLA who clamp road-tax avoiders up here.

Oh. Tsk. Stop confusing me Barcrud, they're talking about England.

[Dr Lobster*]

this is long, long overdue.

i haven't got a problem with cars being clamped per-se, but it seems to have been used as extortion by a great many parking firms. my sister was clamped a couple of years ago for parking in a gym carpark and she was marched to a cash machine to pay a release fee (she had to pay it then or the car would be towed away... yada yada). really frightening for her. i wouldn't argue that she was in the wrong, i'm sure the gym have a problem with people abusing the car parking, but a ticket on the window screen would have sufficed.

does anybody know of anybody ever taken to court for not paying a private carparking charge notice?

two of my friends had one (one for parking in a hospital when their son was born, the other for staying too long in a drive through mcdonalds) and they both ignored the letters which came (which they tell me were increasingly threatening, but i didn't read them myself) but they eventually stopped.

[scottishtv]

Private clamping is banned in Scotland. The Government can still clamp you but, as barcrud says, it tends to be only the DVLA who clamp road-tax avoiders up here.

Oh. Tsk. Stop confusing me Barcrud, they're talking about England.

Some local authorities now have the power to clamp in Scotland if you have outstanding Penalty Charge Notices. More info on edinburgh.gov.uk

[Gavin Scott]

Some local authorities now have the power to clamp in Scotland if you have outstanding Penalty Charge Notices. More info on edinburgh.gov.uk

They just lift the car up and drop it off in Leith, don't they?

[cwathen]

i haven't got a problem with cars being clamped per-se, but it seems to have been used as extortion by a great many parking firms. my sister was clamped a couple of years ago for parking in a gym carpark and she was marched to a cash machine to pay a release fee (she had to pay it then or the car would be towed away... yada yada). really frightening for her. i wouldn't argue that she was in the wrong, i'm sure the gym have a problem with people abusing the car parking, but a ticket on the window screen would have sufficed.

This is the issue. A well managed clamping operation can be a very effective way of landowners protecting their land or enforcing their parking policies - and they have every right to do that. But when there is story after story after story of dodgy clampers either enforcing clamping schemes which aren't clearly defined, acting in a threatening manner, charging fees which are unjustifiably high, or towing vehicles away and charging fees which may be more than the car is worth - effectively theft and holding to ransom, something had to be done. As an industry private parking enforcement using clamps has had decades (literally) to clean itself up and get rid of these practices, but it hasn't done - and I'm sure there will be people paying £200 release fees, ringing some mobile number and talking to some thug to find out where their car has been towed away to, or being frog-marched to cash machines under pseudo-theats of violence right up until the last day of it being legal. When an industry is so corrupt and out of control as clamping is, banning it outright really is the only option. I'll say it again - well done to the government on this one, a rare of example of them actually looking out for the public they were elected to serve.

does anybody know of anybody ever taken to court for not paying a private carparking charge notice?

This is the flip side to the argument of course. For all it's faults, clamping does make private enforcement viable. Private parking tickets, regardless of how they are worded, simply don't have the status of a local authority PCN and in practice are pretty much unenforceable.

They don't come under the traffic management act so there is no special legal status to them and private firms don't have access to the (arguably illegal) 'paper court' system which councils use for parking tickets (and council tax for that matter) where unpaid tickets can be magically rubber stamped en-masse through 'court proceedings' which don't go near a real court or a real magistrate, yet somehow result in apparently legitimate liability orders and legitimate appointment of bailiffs to enforce them. It is arguably only access to a system like this which makes legal action to collect a £60 debt viable, and only councils have it.

A private parking ticket is simply a private debt based on a contract which only exists if you read the sign warning you of the charges. In order to enforce it they would have to take you to court (a real court too with all the costs that come with doing that, not a fake council paper court or a bulk session at Northampton) where they would have to prove that you are in breach of contract, simply proving that you hadn't paid the ticket wouldn't be enough. A complete defence to this is that you are not aware of any contract existing as you hadn't read the sign and they would be powerless to prove otherwise.

In reality, I can't see any private ticket being taken to court, they will be collected the way most private debts are - relying on the fact that most people won't know the law and will just pay it, and those who hold out will be scared off by nasty letters. The remaining diehards will probably then be scared off by contact from debt collectors not understanding that private debt collection companies are not bailiffs and have no legal authority whatsoever.