Pro private clampers

Hels28

I live on a private estate where we had to engage private clampers due to the number of cars parking on our site causing inconvenience to residents. First of all, cars parked overnight often block the bin men from access therefore leaving our site looking like a shanti-town. Secondly, if the need ever arose for emergency vehicles to access the property, they would not be able to do so as vehicles would block there access - this is a life and death situation. We cannot have a barrier at the front of the property because drivers would have to reverse on to a main road which is now illegal. We have families eating their McDonald's dinners in their cars. There are numerous car parks where we live - some of them are even free - but people are either too tight to spend a £1 or too lazy to walk. I have no sympathy for people who get clamped or even if there cars are damaged by angry residents. I feel like spraying paint on them or scratching them but it hasn't come to that yet. You may feel that this is an over reaction - but you try living with it and you will soon feel the same way. :mad:

anewman

Hels28 wrote: »

First of all, cars parked overnight often block the bin men from access therefore leaving our site looking like a shanti-town.

"our site"?! unusual way to put it unless you're a clamping firm.

Hels28 wrote: »

Secondly, if the need ever arose for emergency vehicles to access the property, they would not be able to do so as vehicles would block there access

If a car can get through an ambulance can. And believe me if an emergency vehicle needs to get through, they will make a route.

Hels28 wrote: »

We cannot have a barrier at the front of the property because drivers would have to reverse on to a main road which is now illegal.

It's been illegal forever. I am sure a properly designed system could easily avoid this, and if not people could reverse in then it is perfectly legal for them to drive straight out.

Hels28 wrote: »

We have families eating their McDonald's dinners in their cars.

Sit there starring at them while they eat, or dance naked in your house. They won't come back again.

Hels28 wrote: »

or even if there cars are damaged by angry residents. I feel like spraying paint on them or scratching them but it hasn't come to that yet.

Well I hope that doesn't happen to your property.

If you live in this area, you will have seen these problems to a certain degree when you decided to move there. If a street is too narrow that cars can't park on it and binmen/fire engines can't get through then the designer is at fault. Sounds like one of those crap Redrow estates where they squeeze every square inch possible and make the smallest crappest houses possible for maximum profit, in a high population area where you're guaranteed to get people parking. A simple bit of forethought by the designers and there wouldn't be an issue.

Plus you don't mention that you have a car? Are you one of these that doesn't have a car yet gets aggravated when someone parks outside their house on the road because they think they own it?!

Besides all this. If the cars are *THAT* dangerous and obstructive, does clamping them there not cause more danger?!

hethmar

Re clamping on private estates - my son has a flat on a small development near a town centre. He had to pay for the privilege of an allocated undercover parking space and his girlfriend who shares the flat has parked in spare spaces. People have been parking on the site and walking into the nearby town centre. Hence notices have appeared saying clampers will be in attendance. Problem is, only one pass per flat means potentially girlfriend's car is going to be clamped. Has anyone else been in this situation? Should the management company provide visitor passes for other residents?

peter_the_piper

Just you wait till you forget to put your pass on the dash or park 6" out of line and you get clamped, then see how much you like them. Clampers may well do a good job but when they have no strangers to clamp then they turn on the residents. Each site has to make money or they go out of business. I'm not sure how much help you'd then get here or elsewhere.

PS its been proved that a clamp put on a residents car ,by themselves, is a very good deterrent without the bullyboys.

Hels28

You would have to see the site to believe it. The site where we live is a new build so none of these issues could have been foreseen. Reversing on to a main road cannot have been illegal forever because there is a driveway 3 buildings along that has a gate and where people do drive in and have to reverse out again. The area where cars park leave just enough room for a car to pass - trust me - an ambulance WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO PASS and a fire engine certainly could not. One of our residents is a fireman who has asked people to move their cars for precisely this reason - so please do not patronise me when you have not seen the site and so have no idea what you are talking about. And as for someone having reason to damage my property, I have never been in a position to give them reason to want to. I'm not an ignorant/selfish individual and I can read signs that say "Warning - Private Property". In hindsight, the design is poor. I guess that's what comes of people having degrees working on a council - degrees count for nothing - but common sense is everything.

ankspon

I agree with hels28,i live on a private estate,there are two entrances but one is bollarded off for use for emergency services only yet people park and block this entrance,clamp em all.There is now warning signs warning people that parking here is illegal.

System

If it is private then it is probably not illegal. If that was the case then you could get the police involved. Possibly a civil wrong.

Hels28

If it is private the police / council will not get involved - unless the car is there long enough for the police to turn up anyway.
We have a pole to stop people parking in our space. This has been knocked over by a driver reversing out in her 4X4 and just mowing it down. This car used to park in our car park regularly - she hasn't been seen since. However, we have to cough up the £100 excess even if it can be claimed back. Right now we don't have a spare £100. The police took so long to sort this out (our local station are volunteers who don't know what they are doing) and it took 4 weeks just to get the accident form from them.
Our flats have one entrance/exit so emergency vehicles don't have the luxury of a bollarded entrance even though no doubt people would just park there anyway.
If you can read and no that you should not park in a certain place, don't complain when you get a clamp.

ripped_off_driver

It is this "I'm all right Jack" attitude that has allowed these criminal scum to operate and flourish. Hels28, who has made all of her 6 MSE posts in favour of clamping, will not be laughing when the defenders of her "site" clamp her for putting her permit on the wrong side of the car, or if it falls down, or if she is a millimetre outside of the lines or (illegally pretending to the DVLA) she is a day late with her tax. Then she will realise the bargain she has made - with knuckle dragging pondlife who roam the highways with a modern version of "stand and deliver". I remember Perky's mate once saying he used to hide in the bushes laughing at people distressed to have been clamped. That is the measure of the sociopathic individuals involved in this criminal industry.

Hels28

I can only assume that you are the pondlife that ignore warning signs and get clamped because of your own ignorance. No sympathy for you.

Hels28

The point people seem to be missing is that you may be distressed at having been clamped/ticketed for your ignorance. I understand the feeling. I had a boyfriend around 20 years ago who would park anywhere he liked and take his chances. We were clamped or towed away. More recently we have been clamped having not looked at the signs. It is annoying - it's also a lesson. What you have to realise when parking on private land, this is A CONSTANT ISSUE for residents and we don't want it. Signs a at eye level when entering our site - there are no excuses. We don't want clampers on our site - WE HAVE TO HAVE THEM BECAUSE OF YOU.