Clamping in E&W

getmore4less

After a quick summary on the clamping situation in E&W

A development site near us(office to apartments) has just taken down some fences and put up signs

"private vehicles will be clamped".

There is room for parking at the front for about 6 cars open to the main road.
the back the old office parking is still fenced off.

Can we assume this is just a threat?
If they do clamp what could we do to resolve that?

The site is still a development, handy in the evening and weekends when no one works there.
Once purchasers occupy we will leave the place alone.

pogofish

There is no clamping on private property in E&W since POFA 2012 came into force.

Only a small number of bodies with statutory authority can still clamp for specific purposes - eg Police or VOSA for unlicensed vehicles.

Your builders on private property are not one of these, so call the police if anyone does actually get clamped.

bargepole

Threatening to commit a criminal offence is an offence in itself, and the contractors, by displaying such a notice, are threatening to commit a criminal offence contrary to s8 of the Criminal Justice Act 1967, or in the alternative, are committing a tort of Fraud by False Representation, contrary to s2 of the Fraud Act 2006.

I would suggest approaching the site manager, and informing him of this. You could suggest that anyone prosecuted for this offence could face a fine of up to £5,000, and/or 6 months in custody.

I said this to the practice manager at my dentist's surgery last year, when they still had clamping signs in the car park, and apparently she rushed out with a screwdriver and scissors and took them down.

HO87

As BP has said.

However, I would not be tempted to simply park and test their resolve. Whilst it may be a criminal offence getting the police to act (given that there appears to be a significant level of ignorance amongst the BiB) is another thing. Obtaining an emergency injunction is neither that simple nor indeed very cheap - and might not be that quick.

getmore4less

Thanks guys, that sums things up nicely.

We have some very friendly community support officers that patrol regularly.

I can ask them to have a word with the site and see what reaction I get.

I think the idea is to scare people to avoid it becoming a common parking place as once one parks in a area you tend to get more joining in.

They seemed to tolerate parking against the fence(room for 2-3 cars) but now that is down they are not so keen.

I also spotted another set of clamping signs in the town center today
I think it is the cafe/nightclub that are the owners/lease it's a back ally access for the shops.

I suspect they won't clamp but there may be other things they could do that would be much harder to deal with without cameras

Half_way

An empty threat sign, threatening clamping is a significant improvement on a PPC issuing parking charge notices.
As long as no clamping takes place then its probably left well alone, after all if its depriving a PPC of an income stream from that site, and its also scaring off the motorists then it can only be a good thing.