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I enquired with the government regarding a loophole in the Protection of Freedoms Bill relating to clamping.

As the Surrey County Cllr. for Camberley West I've spent hundreds of hours trying to help people in Cedar Lane CP Frimley who've been the victims of clamping. Some, of course, who were trying to avoid paying for parking probably deserved some retribution. However, to clamp drivers for an upside-down ticket, having a tyre on a white line etc is, in my view, unreasonable. Hundreds of people have been clamped in this small village car park and business is suffering.

It is, to quite a large extent, due to the efforts of Frimley businesses and me that the new clamping legislation is in the Protection of Freedoms Bill. Thus I was concerned to read your report last week relating to a possible loophole. I took this up - the reply is below. It has come from within Government but I cannot as yet mention the source.

Asked on 28 May 2011 by DF, via email

Answered by Honest John
This ‘Government’ reply ended, "Consequently, the Government is broadening the ability of landowners who use parking control companies to pursue the driver or the keeper of the vehicle for unpaid fines."

This extremely sinister statement refers to section 56 of The Protection of Freedoms Bill that the British Parking Association is lobbying for in order that its members can pursue registered keepers of vehicles for any penalties incurred by drivers of those vehicles. So someone steals your car, parks it outside MacDonalds for longer than it takes to gulp down a hamburger and coffee, then you, the registered keeper, are legally compelled to pay whatever fine MacDonald's parking enforcement contractor cares to levy. Is that what you want? I hope not. Write to your MP now.
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