MSE News: Wheel clamping to be banned on private land

bigturnip

Hadeon wrote: »

My prerogative, but I regret that it appears to be have caused you some difficulties. I disagree with your points & I'm particularly astonished at your claim that 'it makes it look like you said things you didn't' (perhaps you would care to elaborate & give an example(s) of this). The very reason in fact I 'quoted within your quotes' was that by reproducing your post in full, individual comments you made within it, if isolated & responded to, could not otherwise have been taken out of context.




......and I read it that a start date for parking had not been agreed (period) and that Aspire subsequently realised the error (sic) was theirs.(period)
How you can possibly condone & consider the actions of the PPC to be perfectly reasonable under any circumstances, is totally beyond me.




What!!!! Are you serious? :eek:
Hence nothing; I wonder if you would feel the same if your car was among the 15 clamped during this night-raid thus preventing you from getting to work, opening up your business premises, getting to the airport, hospital or whatever.
It appears to me your attitude in this instance towards innocent victims of PPC excesses, lacks understanding & is every bit as selfish & inconsiderate as the motorists you accuse of abusing your own business spaces.



Are you now saying The Sun article was a complete or partial fabrication? :eek:
I'll choose to add my own levels of seasoning if you don't mind.

I think the example given was a poor one, there are many worse examples out there, much of the story is ambiguous, but then considering the newspaper it was written in, that is hardly surprising.

bigturnip

lucylucky wrote: »

Is the whole pavement one giant dropped kerb?

Yes, sort of, there isn't really a kerb, just a faded white line to distinguish the road from what could be considered a pavement, the actual pavement starts just to the left of the diagram, to the right there is no pavement, there is a proper kerbed pavement on the other side of the road leading to the station about 50 yards to the right, opposite the shops.

TheBogsDollocks

Is there any yellow line on the adjacent carriageway?

bigturnip

TheBogsDollocks wrote: »

Is there any yellow line on the adjacent carriageway?

There's no yellow lines anywhere, but it would be a foolish place to stop given the width of the road and the speed at which cars drive along it. Nobody using the station ever parks on the road, they value their cars too much.

There are a couple of quiet roads 100-200 yards away where most people park. There is a pub a few hundred yards the other way where some people park, they don't clamp, but they have a much bigger car park and a few inconsiderate drivers doesn't impact them on the same level, besides it's about the same distance as the on road parking, so not really an advantage.

TheBogsDollocks

From the diagram it seems that the land is part of the public highway as the public can pass and re-pass over the land without hindrance.

If so, then the local highway authority could simply make the parking spaces for "permit holders only" by including the location in their traffic order. A customer can then pop into the shop to retrieve a permit. Permits could be designed to be time limited (eg. 20 mins) so that you do not have to worry about permits being given back. The shop owners and the HA can simply discuss the best method for doing this. The thing is that any vehicle that parks without a valid permit can be served with a lawful penalty charge. Although you don't have regular patrols most councils have mobile units that respond to phone calls from the public. In truth if there is no regular patrol then in practice you won't need to trouble yourself with handing out permits but you will still have a system that allows you to report unlawfully parked vehicles.

I would expect that you and all the other owners would need to approach your local councillors to put pressure on the highway authority to bring in a permit scheme but it is a solution.

bigturnip

TheBogsDollocks wrote: »

From the diagram it seems that the land is part of the public highway as the public can pass and re-pass over the land without hindrance.

If so, then the local highway authority could simply make the parking spaces for "permit holders only" by including the location in their traffic order. A customer can then pop into the shop to retrieve a permit. Permits could be designed to be time limited (eg. 20 mins) so that you do not have to worry about permits being given back. The shop owners and the HA can simply discuss the best method for doing this. The thing is that any vehicle that parks without a valid permit can be served with a lawful penalty charge. Although you don't have regular patrols most councils have mobile units that respond to phone calls from the public. In truth if there is no regular patrol then in practice you won't need to trouble yourself with handing out permits but you will still have a system that allows you to report unlawfully parked vehicles.

I would expect that you and all the other owners would need to approach your local councillors to put pressure on the highway authority to bring in a permit scheme but it is a solution.

I will investigate this, but the parking spaces in front of each shop are definitely owned by each shop as they're in the deeds. So if a piece of privately owned land is attached to a public highway without any kind of distinguishing barrier (there is a line of sunken flagstones between the parking and what I have illustrated as the pavement) then it is deemed to be part of the public highway?

TheBogsDollocks

Yes it is if the public are able to pass and re-pass without hindrance.

If there were yellow lines adjacent to the shops then technically no one could park in the spaces since a yellow line restriction does not only apply to carriageway but to a side of road (the spaces fall under the definition of road).

Hadeon

bigturnip wrote: »

I think the example given was a poor one, there are many worse examples out there, much of the story is ambiguous,

Oh, I see...a little like the reporting of your own somewhat minor problem perhaps?

trisontana

This is National Clamps' response to the forthcoming ban on private clamping:-

National Clamps' View Point:

Trevor Whitehouse chairman of National Clamps says that these measures are ludicrous this is typical of an MP who knows about government issues and nothing about the Private Parking Industry.

I on the other hand with 21 years of experience and a founder honouree member of the Industry of Parking Professionals can tell you that public awareness now of wheel clamping has brought ease and comfort to the proprietor by providing low cost car parking management.

The alternatives are daunting, are we actually going to turn the clock back to draconian measures - I.E. Pop up studs, unlocking chains, expensive barriers or do the government expect us all to issues Fixed Penalty Notices where only 62% pay whilst the rest end up with small claims court proceedings resulting in visits from bailiffs, surely that is worse.

All that’s required is a cap on the release fee, time limit’s before vehicles can be towed and only as a last resort in instances of blocking fire exits, emergency exits or access to land. All the companies should be licensed and regulated by the SIA.

National Clamps' message to our clients

You can rest assured that what ever the outcome we are prepared for every eventuality hopefully using the threat of wheel clamping will still provide good car park management. However we are members of the BPA we have been scrutinised and accepted by the DVLA we have direct access using the EDI into the database. We are ISO 9001 approved.

Our chairman is also the owner of ANPR Ltd, which as you already know is Automatic Number Plate Recognition. We have both hardware and software to meet any demands.

We are open to suggestions; we have every intention of fighting this and will require your help. We will be in touch via our usual media.


Meet, e-mail, write to, call your MP. It’s not too late - we can't do this on your behalf.

I like the bit about "all the other cases ending up in court". Of course that's completely untrue. As we all know, if we ignore these clowns they just go away. And, of course, no mention of the ban in Scotland of private clamping which has been in force for twenty years.

geordieracer

bromsgrovebarry wrote: »

I can sympathise with anybody whose business is affected by selfish car park abusers but clamping is not the answer.

What is your answer then? Just what do you do with people who park badly with no thought for others?