MSE News: Wheel clamping to be banned on private land

anewman

Frank_n_Furter wrote: »

The easiest way to disable a vehicle without causing any damage is to remove two valve cores from two tyres,

This could cause sidewall damage to the tyre, which at a later date could lead to a blow out and lots of innocent people either injured or killed due to your actions if the tyre was reused. Tyres are not designed to sit on a car uninflated and folded in half underneath over a tonne of weight.

Even if it was not considered criminal damage, then it may well come under the interfering with vehicle laws.

liam8282

AlexisV wrote: »

Liam, can you give some examples of problem parking situations on private land? How does it work in your shop? There is no magic wand to solve inconsiderate parking overnight, but there are various solutions for specific situations.

Please give us some scenarios so we continue the debate.

One scenario:

A small business has its own premises, with a private car park outside.

Say an accountancy firm for arguments sake.

They have space for 25 cars outside.

They have 14 staff who all require a space. They need to be in and out of the office most times of the day.

Of the 11 spaces left, 2 are rented by an adjacent hairdressers, 2 rented out to an adjacent restaurant, 2 rented out to another business, 5 left for customers only.

Now, the problem. The business is located near a busy shopping centre which charges for parking. Next to the shopping centre is a train station. Next to the business is a doctors surgery, a dentist and several other shops, all of which do not have their own parking, but are expected to use the shopping centre car park, as that is a public pay and display car park.

Shoppers from the above business do not want to pay for parking, so they decide to use the private car park without permission.

Shoppers have also regularly damaged staff and client cars, opening doors too widely and bumping them, scraping them etc, driving off without trace.

People commuting to the city centre leave their cars all day, without permission.

Now, without having somebody constantly on watch, or digging up the entire car park to install and connect a barrier system etc. What is this small business supposed to do?

If you can give a response which does not involve any costs, extra work, employing extra people or is even just enforceable by the small business, I will gladly accept that response.

liam8282

trisontana wrote: »

And don't forget all those mythical cases up and down the land where householders find motorists parking on their driveways.

I have already said that was an example at it's most extreme, and also made tongue in cheek.

But if that is your contribution to a discussion, well done. :T

trisontana

liam8282 wrote: »

I have already said that was an example at it's most extreme, and also made tongue in cheek.

But if that is your contribution to a discussion, well done. :T

But that old chestnut keeps being repeated by the supporters of clampers and PPCs.

liam8282

trisontana wrote: »

But that old chestnut keeps being repeated by the supporters of clampers and PPCs.

Oh right, so that makes you a supporter of clampers and PPCs, because you keep repeating it?

pgt67

Liam, from someone who has never been clamped/had a ticket I am with you fully on your scenario and thought the same about those with parking space that is private with regard to yesterdays announcement.

The problem has been the extortionate payments required to release clamps etc along with the underhand ways in which they do it, ie hide round the corner till you walk away, use the tinniest sign in the most less obvious place possible.

I would have more sympathy for these sharks if they charged "reasonable" release fees and also had signage which was very accessable and in plain english

lucylucky

liam8282 wrote: »

One scenario:

A small business has its own premises, with a private car park outside.

Say an accountancy firm for arguments sake.

They have space for 25 cars outside.

They have 14 staff who all require a space. They need to be in and out of the office most times of the day.

Of the 11 spaces left, 2 are rented by an adjacent hairdressers, 2 rented out to an adjacent restaurant, 2 rented out to another business, 5 left for customers only.

Now, the problem. The business is located near a busy shopping centre which charges for parking. Next to the shopping centre is a train station. Next to the business is a doctors surgery, a dentist and several other shops, all of which do not have their own parking, but are expected to use the shopping centre car park, as that is a public pay and display car park.

Shoppers from the above business do not want to pay for parking, so they decide to use the private car park without permission.

Shoppers have also regularly damaged staff and client cars, opening doors too widely and bumping them, scraping them etc, driving off without trace.

People commuting to the city centre leave their cars all day, without permission.

Now, without having somebody constantly on watch, or digging up the entire car park to install and connect a barrier system etc. What is this small business supposed to do?

If you can give a response which does not involve any costs, extra work, employing extra people or is even just enforceable by the small business, I will gladly accept that response.

Now if you had said in the first place that you were only looking for impractical solutions then we could have saved a lot of the intervening posts.;)

liam8282

lucylucky wrote: »

Now if you had said in the first place that you were only looking for impractical solutions then we could have saved a lot of the intervening posts.;)

Just the sort of response that has come to be expected.

Well done.:T

Nicip

I am a shop owner and along with the premises I rent some parking spaces. We have always had clamping here as a deterrent to illegal parking, but it doesn't always work. Fro example less than 15 minutes ago I was sworn at by a man who thought he could park there whenever he wanted to and I was a s**g for calling the clampers on him, who were just driving down the road.

What am I supposed to do? As a small business, we can't afford to have the parking spaces fenced off, especially so that they can be accessed individually. I have arrived here in the morning before now to find I can't use any of my own parking spaces due to the ignorant use of them by people who aren't prepared to pay for their parking - I pay for those spaces, why shouldn't they?

On the news last night, some official was saying that we could issue parking fines, and that they are enforceable, but everything that I've found so far says that they are not enforceable. Its all very well for the government to take away clamping and towing but equally they need to be providing those of us who will be left exposed with the correct information to be able to tackle the problem

trisontana

Just to correct the above. They are not "parking fines" and parking on private land is not "illegal" as no statue law has been broken. This sloppy (or deliberate) misuse of terminology is a favourite ploy of private parking companies when they want to fool people into thinking their operation is legitimate.