Wheel clamping on private land to be banned

Yes, I imagine clarification on this one will be useful to a number of people

Chris

Grey area in the act is for in house security not to require licences and my understanding is that also applies to other activities unless it is licensed premises.
Can some one chime in.

Barry

Barry... I trust that whoever uses the clamp in your building is a member if the SIA - not to be so might be construed as errr..... very bad!

However... as you suggest we shoulod agree to differ... it is not, after all, up to me to suggest why you and yours should consider the victimsation of innocents a worthwhile expense of a couple of quid.

Hello

Chris we do not use clampers but we might use a clamp, we need a deterrent, we may use other means (boxing in) and as far as I see if we do not charge we can continue.
Some vehicles that appeared are untaxed (probably uninsured) that we can report.
The group includes a number of pensioners who do not drive so the costs are amortised over a much smaller group, who cannot afford any other costs may be different in a couple of years.
For the moment we should agree to differ until the law is changed and we can see how it pans out.

Barry

Barry,

The fact that you and your tennants are unable to afford even the most minimal of sums, and that you are quite confident in dismissing any other solution irrespective of whether there is any small financial consideration, seems to go a long way to illustrating why these cowboy companies are doing so well.

Please forgive my cynicism - but if a whole group of you can afford to drive, pay road tax, insurance, maintain or replace your vehicles at given intervals - I find it difficult to believe that as a group raising a few paltry poinds a month would pose an insurmountable problem.

Rather it seems as though, as a group and not necessarily you alone, have decided that the ends justify the means... ie... the risk of the abuse that an errant driver might face is worth the money. I wonder whether you would feel the same way if it were your wife or daughter leaving the vehicle after an emergency and then being subject to these gangster style hoodlums.

Real world solution:- CCTV with number plate recognition software programmed to send details of the errant vehicle can be installed for less than £30.00 monthly.

Surely sharing this across (how many?) drivers does not constitute an insurmountable problem.

(Figures used are for illusttration and not meant as spam)

Even fencing the whole site off can not have been that expensive... besides lets face it.. you are going to have to reconsider now whether you like it or not!

Chris

It would have to be free and there would be problems with leases, trust me this is very complex and has been looked at over the last few years.
Barriers were looked at but meant that the whole site had to be fenced off.
We just do not have the cash.

Barry

Barry,

Technology, as always, is the answer to this problem. If you were to be in direct contact with me I would be able to provide a direct solution... of course that is not easily provable in a forum like this... however

Bollards work... place them closer together. Your problem is not that of neighbours but of outsiders!

Clamps are cheap... but are symbolic of a much greater abuse of the law.

If I give you a solution at a decent sum... why would the car owning tennants not be receptive...especially if it means they get somewhere to park at night?

Chris

As you say evidence can be gathered by CCTV but once the car has gone so has the problem.
Bollards do not work at all as when deployed you can park between them and you cannot deploy them once a car is in place.
We have the threat of a clamp (never used) this is cheap.
All other methods cost money and not every one in the flats has a car so will not wish to contribute to enforcement.

Barry

Barry, are you certain that the clamp would be your only recourse?

Nowadays CCTV evidence is so cheap it is almost laughable... and it makes a hell of a case when it is used.

It also seems to me (without any legal expertise so if I am wrong someone please correct me), that even if you are unable to clamp... you are free to secure your parking spaces with removable bollards and such. Even if a bollard is locked after the vehicle is parked it would have the same effect as a clamp would it not?

Just a few ideas that might stimulate a lateral thinking session rather than thinking that all is lost.

It is a great shame that people who have used this facillity legally, and with moral judgement, should have to suffer along with those who have exploited it for a quick buck... the question is... how does one seperate one from the other... and which group are in the majority.

Hello

Carole we are a block of flats who own the freehold, the only sanction we have is the clamp, we cannot afford to employ anyone or construct a barrier, disabled residents (who own their spaces) may well now lose them.


Barry

Tom - I am sorry for your situation, its tough when you don't have an agent to do things for you. It sounds like barriers/gates may be your next option with remote operators for everyone. I don't know where you are situated but notifying the local plod is helpful because they can put you on their beat and that acts as a deterrent if seen on a regular basis.

Barry - Disabled Parking is managed on the Public Highway by legislation if it is a properly designated Bay. Anyone parking in one will get a ticket. As now it is the courtesy Disabled Bays which suffer but clamping will not affect that.

Disabled Bays or any other Bays on private land will be subjected to the Landowners own restrictions. My personal view is that a parking monitor/warden will have to be employed on site instead of the services of a parking company to clamp and tow. There are a lot of people out there who are unemployed who would jump at the chance of a job like that which could be incorporated into or along side some other role within a company. I wish everyone would stop looking at the negatives and perhaps start to see some of the positives - or is that too simplistic?

Hello

We could end up going back to the old ways of smashed windscreens and brake fluid and that just will not help.
Presumably the disabled parking will also be at risk as the only sanction currently is the clamp.

Barry

Carole, the sign I put up was supplied by a reputable car clamping company who gave me the sign without charge & don't make any form of charge to keep it here or for the service if we need to call them out. I have called them out only once since it was displayed & they clamped the car.

We run our own management compnay & matters regarding parking & other irritants such as people taking shortcuts through our property, climbing on bins to clear a metal fence we had to erect at vast cost because people were just smashing through the original wooden panels. Life's an ongoing whirl of fun!!!Tom

Carole

Well said!

Tom

We will have the same problem???

Barry

Tom - My understanding is Yes. I am surprised if you just put up signs that were just a threat that nobody saw through it. You would need to contact your managing agent and ask them what they intend to do about the situation now. It might mean a barrier with remote access for apartment owners.

No Phil you use your common sense and you tell delivery drivers to either call the company from their lorry and ask somebody to come out and lift whatever barrier you have to put in place or you employ somebody to be at your "gate" instead of paying a company to monitor, clamp and tow vehicles. Swings and roundabouts.

It just might mean that some forethought has to go into things with some different notices put up outside.

Unfortunately you can blame the cowboys who have ruined this for your company. They were repeatedly warned and given the opportunity to follow the rules like everyone else. They did not and this is what has happened.

John - as for your situation, I am struggling to say something nice. Hospitals have some of the highest charges for parking and I have a big problem with asking people who are coming for a medical appointment and who are kept waiting for hours with no choice to pay those fees. I also have a huge problem with seeing Consultant and Chairman only parking signs right outside the door of the Hospital when there is blatantly far too few disabled bays - it is after all a Hospital!
Validation of tickets at an appointments desk when you check in springs to mind as one way of helping patients and still enforcing parking control.

Why do staff need parking spaces.......do other companies supply parking spaces for employees in your area? My GP surgery does not supply parking other than disabled and its right near a station and they never have used clamps and never needed to. My hospital does not clamp either, it employs parking wardens that do their job.

What is the point of sticking something on a car that forces it to stay where you don't want it for far longer then it would have been had you not stuck the thing on it in the first place? Its just a money making process and nothing more.

So, if you have, for instance, a small area outside your office that is on a busy street which you have obvious signage warning of clamping to prevent parking, so that deliveries can be made without every delivery company having to park miles away to avoid being ticketed, that anyone can park there without cause for concern?

So the office company then has poles and chains put in, after all, it is their property, forcing deliveries to park on roads, causing further congestion?

Or would they need to contact the Police and have the vehicle towed for obstruction, with the £150 per day fee that goes with it?

Just wondering?

Interesting; yes but what about NHS sites (hospitals; GP's surgeries & the like) which are mostly public-sector owned but; compared to adjacent highways, are "private property?".

I work for two NHS trusts; both have signicicantly large parking areas (both public & staff-only) with virtually 24/7 unrestricted vehicular access from the highway so I'd be interested to see how this pans out. Any comments out there? especially from the public health sector!

John P. Graham
London

We live in a private apartment block with our own car park at the rear. We suffered from people visiting a non private block across the road which has considerably more parking spaces at the rear but some people chose to park in our private spaces causing great inconvenience. Owners of the spaces were returning home to find other cars in their designated spaces. If we said anything to the people parking where they shouldn't have we were met with abuse.

We haven't had a problem since we displayed a clamping notice at the entrance to the car park.

Will this ban mean that we will have to take the notice down?

Tom

This post has been removed because it contravened our guidelines.

What goes around comes around - cant come soon enough. Hopefully the cowboys will be kicked out and the industry will get serious about managing these companies properly.