A new legislation will tackle rogue wheel clampers who charge drivers hundreds of pounds for minutes of illegal parking.
The Home Office is considering setting a limit of £135 for a clamping charge – much below the several hundred pounds people in Wokingham have been forced to pay out.
The town’s two main companies, Parking Control Management and Trinity Parking Solutions, regularly charge drivers £385 for being clamped.
This includes £125 to release clamps and another £250 to cancel the cost of a recovery truck being called out.
Councillor Keith Baker, executive member for highways and transport, said:
‘I think the crux of the matter is the charges. These need to be reasonable and fair so where charges are excessive I think there ought to be some mechanism for controlling that.’
‘This could take the form of a code of conduct or legislation about the charges.’
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has announced the Home Office will look at introducing compulsory licensing for clamping companies.
Numerous drivers have reported the clampers carrying out dodgy practices including excessive penalties, hidden signs which do not warn drivers of the full cost and no real appeals process.
At the moment, the wheel clampers must have a licence from the SIA, while company directors and supervisors have a non-frontline licence.
The new proposals would mean the company itself would have to be licensed to help make sure the standards of conduct are upheld.
Ms Smith said: ‘There are clearly a minority of clamping companies indulging in unacceptable behaviour including unclear signage and excessive fees.’
‘That is why we intend to look carefully at how we can introduce a scheme for compulsory licensing of clamping companies and will publish proposals shortly.’
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October 22nd, 2009 at 11:59
My husband was recently clamped in his lorry whilst making a delivery. He was actually in the lorry at the time so therefore the clamping is against a law from the 1700’s which states that no one is entitled to interfere with a workman using the tools of his trade. We have evidence that the whole clamping operation was done within 8 minutes of his arrival so allowing for the clamp to be fitted and the notice to be written out taking 5 minutes this was 3 minutes after his arrival. He had a legitimate reason for being there. There were signs on the loading bay saying that vehicles would be clamped which reasonably one can only presume that the loading bay could not be used. Clamping signs into the estate were blocked by official traffic signs (the clamping signs also blocked out the official traffic signs as well). He was charged a week’s wages to be unclamped. He could not see the signs as his lorry obscured them. When we appeals we were told it was because he had parked on double yellow lines but have been told by our solicitor that as it was private land double yellow signs are for warning purposes only.
We are considering taking the matter to a small claims court.
We would welcome any comments. A week’s wage is hard to lose when you are just doing your job.
November 10th, 2009 at 11:37
If your husband was physically in the lorry then the clamping is not legal. You cannot clamp a vehicle if the engine is running or if there is a driver/passenger in the vehicle. Therefore, if you take them to small claims you will have a case, assuming you have proof. Remember, the clamping company may have pictures of the vehicle before and after clamping. If you could not see the signs because they are obscured by other signs, then that may also make the clamping illegal. Be sure to get evidence of this. If your husbands lorry was obscuring the signs that will not be admissible as you are obscuring the signs because you shouldn’t be parking there. Before you take them to small claims it is worth appealing to the clamping company direct. They MUST BY LAW give you an appeals procedure to follow. If they did not then complain to the Security Industry Authority that they are not adhering to the Private Security Industry Act. You can do this through their website at http://www.the-sia.org.uk.
Best of luck.