Car Clamping ban - Confirmed

Stephen_Leak

Criminals always find new ways of making a dishonest living. I expect we'll be hearing about lots of new PPCs.

Stephen_Leak

Half_way wrote: »

I volunteer with a comunity group, and sometimes we have had someone park their vehicle on our car park without asking, the problem being is that we need to close and lock the gate to the car park when we go.
So far we have been doing this, with or without this vehicle on the premises and leaving a ticket/note on the car parkind without permision, on this ticket is some basic information together with "we have to lock the gate after using the premises, if you want to release your car please phone X or Y or Z on these numbers, and they will open up to let you out"

hopefuly this aproach will not be outlawed, as its unreasonable to ask a volunteer to stop behind and babysit a car for however long its left there for.

Someone at a comitee meeting sugested getting in touch with a parking company who will provide us with tickets ( he had a print out from some website) so "we can fine drivers who park witout permision" and "keep some of the takings", needles to say i was not in favour of this aproach and so far it hasnt come up again.

My understanding is that, where a car park closes at a particular time and someone has left their vehicle inside, it can still be "immobilised" by locking the barriers. Obviously, the warning signs should be clear.

vax2002

locking a car park will not immobilise any vehicle, it can be started and driven round the car park to your content.
This was the prefix to clamping, a call out charge for a warden to open the car park and it will be after the ban, agree many will just wait until next morning, many wont.
We will see barriers left open, then mysteriously locked with a call out fee or wait.

give_them_FA

Needs to be clarified; though I would agree that if car park closure times are clearly advertised then shutting the gate isn't "immobilising" any particular vehicle that was left inside.

Stephen_Leak

IIRC, the definition of "immobilising" is something like "denying the owner the use of ...". You can't drive home or wherever you want to.

I'm going to have to read Schedule 4.

give_them_FA

Probably hasn't been thought through by whoever drafts the legislation. Too much of the knee-jerk laws that seem to get passed these days are like that.

vax2002

Some car parks still have the old signs, this car park will be locked at blah blah, a £xxx key warden charge must be paid upon call out to release the gates prior to normal opening time.

Coupon-mad

give_them_FA wrote: »

Needs to be clarified; though I would agree that if car park closure times are clearly advertised then shutting the gate isn't "immobilising" any particular vehicle that was left inside.

Yes, I seem to recall this aspect was discussed in the Commons when there was, initially, a misunderstanding about 'still being able to immobilise behind a locked barrier'. Many people were concerned the wording meant that clamping was still allowed if there happened to be a barrier at the exit.

Lynne Featherstone was quoted as clarifying in the discussion that under NO circumstances was private clamping going to be allowed. The wording on the Bill was amended apparently (we will have to read it!) to clarify that it is OK to close a barrier at closing times as clearly shown in the car park.

I suspect we may still see Local Authorities thinking that because THEY can still tow away on the public highway, that they can also clamp/tow in Local Authority Housing car parks etc. My understanding is they won't be allowed to any more - and anyway, private immobilisation SIA licences will cease to be valid so they should not be able to find a company to do it...but we shall see!

ppc_guy

The next issue is "Vehicle immobilisation is due to become illegal on private land in England and Wales without lawful authority

Who defines lawful authority as the instructions from a landowner to operate would in theory be lawful.

Also i see an appeal to the EU courts over the human right to protect your property. This bill revokes the right to protect your property.

esmerobbo

ppc_guy wrote: »

Also i see an appeal to the EU courts over the human right to protect your property. This bill revokes the right to protect your property.

How do you work that out? If someone parks on my property and it costs me £X then I can sue them for £X.

Recovering legitimate losses has always been the case, adding silly penalties to your claim hasn't !