MSE News: Wheel clamping to be banned on private land

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squidworth

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

Now I may be wrong or maybe it's changed but, incredibly, it is not illegal to park in front of someone's driveway so long as there is no car parked upon it.
Don't know about the reliability of this. It was posted on a legal bulletin board by someone who said they were a lawyer. Might be a load of boll0cks but it wouldn't surprise me.

AFAIK in London (and maybe one or two areas) there's a local by-law against parking across a driveway/dropped kerb... however in most of England and Wales its actually perfectly legal (although not very sociable) to park across a driveway so long as it is empty. My understanding for the reason is you cannot cause an obstruction on the public highway, if a car is in the drive it needs to be able to get out, however if the drive is empty then its not blocking access to the public highway for that car and is considered legal.

And yay for this ban!!! We brits do love a moan dont we...:rotfl:

ripped_off_driver

I see from the comments to Lynne Featherstone's blog that there is something of a determined rearguard attempt by pro-clampers to suggest that this decision does not have public support or is unnecessary:

http://www.lynnefeatherstone.org/2010/08/wheel-clamping-on-private-land-to-be-banned.htm

There are particularly histrionic comments by a Dr Simm and a host of other obvious plants telling how their lives will be blighted by the ban.

If like me you are delighted with the decision to outlaw clamping you may wish to leave a comment accordingly.

Bertie_Wooster_2

Just came across this letter from CP Plus on the Guardian website:

Parking restrictions must be enforceable

The Guardian, Friday 20 August 2010

The proposal to ban wheel clamping and towing on private land has not been thought through. It is a landowner's right to decide who is and who is not allowed to park on their property. It is their prerogative to set the conditions of use of their car park.
These terms may include the issue of a parking charge notice (PCN) and/or the threat of clamping, which is used by many parking management companies to manage persistent offenders. Without this deterrent, there would be chaos.
Imagine your house is near a station, town centre or stadium. Under the new guidelines, there will be no way of dealing with someone parking on your drive or blocking you in. The only way to handle this would be to cite trespass and obtain a court order for the keeper to remove the vehicle. This could take months. If you touch the car, you could be liable for damaging private property.
The government has suggested that ticketing on private land will remain lawful when wheel clamping is banned. Thus if a driver does not abide by a car park's terms and conditions, a PCN can be issued. Currently, the only method of enforcing such regulations is by way of citing contract law. When a driver enters the site, the signs form the basis of the contract. As long as the signage is clear, a driver understands the risks of contravening the conditions of parking. However, contract law is surrounded by complexity and ambiguity, and PCNs are regularly ignored. Before clamping and towing on private land is banned, legislation should be changed to make PCNs in private car parks enforceable.

Grahame Rose
Director, CP Plus

Evidently all the advice from this forum and others about ignoring their 'invoices' must be getting to them!

Bertie

trisontana

And he's raised that old (and mythical) chestnut of motorists parking on householder's driveways.

Also ( and it must be an oversight on his part), He's forgot to mention the situation in Scotland where there has been a ban on private clamping for the last twenty years, without any apparatus problems.

lucylucky

To quote Grahame Rose "Without this deterrent, there would be chaos"

He is correct, here in Scotland, where clamping has been outlawed, the parking situation is out of control. Gun toting gangsters roam the streets searching out little old ladies who fail to display the proper permit. Cars are routinely torched on private land for overstraying a white line. Men have been seen wearing socks with sandals.

It is as Mr Rose suggests utter chaos.

liam8282

People on this thread are not actually discussing anything, from start to finish it is just a rant and rave about how much you all hate clampers.

I dislike those people that abuse others private property, but again this fact is ignored or overwhelmed purely by the hatred for clampers.

liam8282

lucylucky wrote: »

To quote Grahame Rose "Without this deterrent, there would be chaos"

He is correct, here in Scotland, where clamping has been outlawed, the parking situation is out of control. Gun toting gangsters roam the streets searching out little old ladies who fail to display the proper permit. Cars are routinely torched on private land for overstraying a white line. Men have been seen wearing socks with sandals.

It is as Mr Rose suggests utter chaos.

On the other hand as you take it to such extremes,

Was there any such chaos when clamping was in operation?

There was plenty of moaning by the people who hate clampers, and those parking on private land without permission. But no chaos, no major problems.

peter_the_piper

I have heard the rare occasion when people have been blocked in their drive, but this has been by cars on the road. So clamping would not be lawful or feasible. Should anyone park in a private drive to a house I cannot see how clamping it would remove the obstruction but then I have never heard of this happening either here or in Scotland. So this leaves the problem of why the Scots banned clamping if there were no problems.

lucylucky

liam8282 wrote: »

On the other hand as you take it to such extremes,

Was there any such chaos when clamping was in operation?

There was plenty of moaning by the people who hate clampers, and those parking on private land without permission. But no chaos, no major problems.

I was quoting Mr Rose who stated "there would be chaos"

Based on the evidence in Scotland he is incorrect.