Car Clamp HELP NEEDED PLEASE .. Castle Car Park Windsor

Paranoid

Hard to get blood from a stone....
Is it the folk who run the Pay & Display car park who clamp? Or do they allow a third party to clamp on their land? Is the car park clearly signed drawing attention to the possibility of clamping? Have your say, please, to the Home Office Consultation just launched which is aimed at changes in the law.

Petree

Hi,

I know this car park well and drive past it everynight, its notorious in the area for strict enforcement.

The council are planning to pop some signs up on the lampposts outside basically warning about the costs, I think they are having a problem as the car park is doing nothing wrong. I.e. if you dont pay for the time you get clamped.

As far as I know, no one has managed to get off, I think this would make the papers as all the local people can't stand them. They do their clamping by the book, and they have been running for years, if someone had got off for not having enough signs then they would put up 5 more the next day.

Sorry I cant be more positive,

pretendgolfer

Thanks Petree - what you say makes sense, if they have been there this long they will have the process fine tuned (as an example time of clamping = time of ticket expiration + 15 min grace period: to the exact minute).

I guess I should put this down to experience and never park there again, and just hope it becomes illegal very soon. If the council put up warning signs it would be fantastic.

cjackson

I need some advice please, My husband was clamped and the clampers did not lock the clamp so he removed it and lft it on the side of the road. To cut a long story short they spotted him driving away as he has a highly visable van , three of them followed him home and threaten him which included burning our house down . I arrived home after work to three of them blocking the close etc one of them actualy hit my car ! with their van ! the police came and said to look at this as two seperate inceidents one being my husband removing the clamp the other them hitting my car . My husband paid the police a fine but was found not guilty of criminal damage as he had not broken the clamp he had just left it there ( they then said they could not find it ) we also paid the £60.00 parking ticket from the clampers the next day . Two days later we recieved a final demand notice form a no win no fee firm for £411.00 ! any advice on what to do next ?????? my family cannot sleep at night through fear they will come back and harm us help !

mightymole

seek legal advice as soon as

go to the cab or a solicitor who does the 1st interview free

Coblcris

Take them to the cleaners. Prison becons for these clampers. Make sure the solicitor isn't just a general one.

theplumber

I was clamped, in Jan. I did my research. Learnt about Birmingham Trading Standards v Gary Southall. Business names act 1985, states you have to provide full detail of business address. A PO box number is in breach of the law. (He got a massive fine) I discovered the company was not registered at companies house, that the receipt did not state the clampers SIA No., nor have his name printed. The SIA by the way does not exist to help victims of the clamper, and can be considered useless from the victim's point of view.

With leverage from trading standards and the threat of small claims action from my self, the clamper sent me a cheque for repayment.

Spartacus_Mills

cjackson wrote: »

I need some advice please, My husband was clamped and the clampers did not lock the clamp so he removed it and lft it on the side of the road. To cut a long story short they spotted him driving away as he has a highly visable van , three of them followed him home and threaten him which included burning our house down . I arrived home after work to three of them blocking the close etc one of them actualy hit my car ! with their van ! the police came and said to look at this as two seperate inceidents one being my husband removing the clamp the other them hitting my car . My husband paid the police a fine but was found not guilty of criminal damage as he had not broken the clamp he had just left it there ( they then said they could not find it ) we also paid the £60.00 parking ticket from the clampers the next day . Two days later we recieved a final demand notice form a no win no fee firm for £411.00 ! any advice on what to do next ?????? my family cannot sleep at night through fear they will come back and harm us help !

Why did your husband have to pay the police a fine ? What exactly were the police doing in this ?

Again why on earth did you pay the parking fine ?

The Police just shrug their shoulders and don't want to know over this sort of issue. Their callous disregard for people when they are being defrauded out of their money is little short of disgusting.

R-O-B_2

"I think I will write to the car clamping company 'Parking Control Management' and if I have no joy I will take this to the Small Claims Court."

Mel - Have you taken them to court yet? If so how did you get on?

Very interested to know because so often people state they will take clampers to County Court, but do they ever go through with it? And if so do they win?

In answer to Paranoids query - The landowner is a seperate legal entity to the contracted clampers.

mwperont

On Dec 27 2010 after visiting Windsor Castle our car was booted at the Castle Car Park, because we were 15 min late returning to our vehicle. I do not deny that we were late returning, but I was extremely unhappy with the fact that my car had been booted and a release fee of 120 pound required. This is about $200 US in case you are not paying attention. I had no choice but to pay it. After all, the guy had the key to the boot. So - our day was completely ruined for having to spend money we hadn't planned on, the fee was outrageously higher than any parking fee in THE WORLD, that I'd ever run up against - even in New York City. So watch out for these scam artists. A few minutes over and the poor tourist is out $200. I am certain that Parking Control Management (UK) Ltd makes a very good living shaking down first timers. Oh, did I mention that since neither my debit or credit card were 'smart' cards (containing no chip) that they were not acceptable, so that I had to WALK to Barclay's up the hill and withdraw CASH to pay these people? By the way, before you travel abroad to the UK from the US, be sure to inform the fraud departments for both your CREDIT and DEBIT card issuers so they know you are going out of the country, or they will put what is called a HOLD on your card, and assume it was stolen. EVEN of your credit and debit cards are issued by the SAME BANK, the credt and debit fraud departments DO NOT share information and to rectify the situation you are forced to call out of country (hopefully you have an international SIM card for your cell phone to do this), or you are up the creek. Barclay's by the way, which used to be the most US friendly bank in Europe, refused to honor my debit card first because it was not signed, next because I did not have my passport (your US passport CARD is WORTHLESS in this situation - you must have your actual passport) and last because the rube behind the counter had never seen a US passport before (!) and their attirude is that if the ATM transaction failed, then you are SOL. Have fun in Britain!