I was done in less than 43.5 seconds in the car park at Clapham Jct train station. I carried my mother in law's bags from my car to the ticket office and came back. Clamp was in place and the bloke had disappeared within 1 minute.
Was going to complain but saw that the registered office was in the Cayman Islands so thought that it would be a waste of time!!
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CM - I reckon we should get him entered in the 100 metres in Athens!
It sounds to me as if you could complain to the Security Industries Association who are supposed to regulate and register these private clampers these days as per information kindly provided by DVD on this forum to me recently.I'm not sure whether it is actually set up or still at planning stage.
Don't let them get away with this legalised robbery!
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Security Industry Assoc. up and running and even had its own web site
www.tinyurl.com/2xprm
DVD
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Sure is DVD - but I rang SIA to ask and they will not start licensing private wheel clampers until later on this year , they are not yet sure exactly when.
When they do start licensing it will be progressive area by area rather than the whole country in one fell swoop.
As criminal records will disqualify you from a licence so that should rule out a few of these cowboys
Until then - be careful cos they're pretty speedy.
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tinyurl.com/ysnw8
In force 1.3.2004 - you must have stirred them up.
DVD
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.... I should have added Doormen only so far.
DVD
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DVD - 1/3/2004 currently actually only applies to your friendly neighbourhood 'door control supervisors' or bouncers as we used to call them.
The licencing of these gentlemen starts , again progressively area by area in the Hampshire and Isle of Wight area and the licensing of clampers will not commence until some time later in the year.
You will appreciate that they have to handle all the licensing in stages as otherwise they would be overwhelmed by the administration.
The background of all the applicants is checked and a criminal record will disqualify - ie Rolf Harris and his two little boys need not apply!
They did explain this to me but I didn't post it at the time as it wasn't relevant.
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...I don't think I'd go out of my my way to drink there.
This may be a naive question but...
If you're visiting a pub (for a meal or soft drink, obviously) isn't it reasonable to expect to be able to use its car park?
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Well Wellie - or is it Well well wellie...
you'd have thought so but I think this was out of pub hours , huge empty parking area, tiny notices and they were seemed to want stop other than presumably patrons using it.
Tne 45 second victim was a poor sod parking there to go to the shop round the corner to get a packet of cigarettes..
45 seconds is taking the proverbial.
BTW and I hope this isn't construed as racist but most of the Cowboys appeared to be Indians... and the clamped also.
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This seems like the perfect opportunity to moan. The University which I attend has a pretty big campus and one of the worst, badly designed car park ever. The Uni is short on space for about 400 cars so naturally they have to park in rather unorthodox places. I have seen them park next to fire exits for which they should be expelled :-) but there are some more "safer" areas. The Uni has yellow lines which I tend to uphold lest the following happens to me. It had been a long drive in and I was late so matters weren't helped by the fact it took me 34 minutes - YES - 34 minutes! to find a legitimate space miles from anywhere but that's beside the point. Upon walking to the area I was meant to be in 34 minutes earlier I saw a brand spanking new Mondeo parked completely safely on some yellow lines. 2 points - don't say "If there are yellow lines it isn't safe" and admittedly it was half on the pavement but people in triple width wheelchairs could get past. Anyway - this car was clamped which I thought was a little unreasonable given that 10 yards up was a repeat fire exit blocker. Don't get me wrong - I'm not advocating parking on yellow lines but what is the legal standing on this. Couldn't the unfortunate Mondeo owner say - "Private land - I'm going to take an angle grinder to this clamp and return the parts to you" or could the Uni just get the law involved?
I also realise that the age of the said Mondeo should have no bearing on the fact whether it is clamped or not....all bases covered I think - TRY AND PICK HOLES IN THAT ONE!!!
--
"Ah...beer - my only weakness - my achilles heel if you will"
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The sooner clamping is made illegal the better, it is simply a way for bullies to extort money....
But
.....I would say that is it reasonable to suppose that a pub car park is private property (no matter how small the signs) so why should they let you park there if you are not spending your money with them? Suppose someone parked on your drive and walked across the road to visit your neighbours!
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Two words: Bolt Cutters.
Fifth Gear recommended them. Just don't use them if it's a council clamp, as they're likely to involve the law. However, a cowboy clamper is unlikely to bring in Plod due to the questionable legality of what he's doing.
Thing is, you've got to be careful said clamper is not around. Most I've seen are the 6 foot 3 skinhead thick earing with tattoos down the arms. Not someone you want to mess with.
I've never been clamped but would not hesitate to cut it off if they clamped me in less than a minute. Most traffic wardens aren't too bad, though.
One thing I guess you could try is just removing the offending wheel (if you can get at the nuts) and replacing it with the spare and driving off with the clamp and all in your boot :)
I was in Liverpool (yeah, yeah, still had the wheels at the end...) a few weeks ago and needed to park for the day but could only find a space in a two hour bay. Went and found the warden, explained, and she wrote me a special ticket to stick inside the windscreen, which gave me the entire day.
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Sort it out man is wicked! BBC three of a nite time!
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There is another side to the story.
I used to live in a development of flats in central St Albans. There was a barrier to prevent public access to the allocated parking spaces, of which there was one per flat. We had two problems.
The first was that an office building had access past the barrier to their own spaces. They would regularly overfill their spaces and spread into our land, hindering access. The second was that a video rental chain had an (large) outlet opposite the entrance, so there would be a constant flow of short term parkers using the entrance to our flats to park in while they browsed for the night's viewing. The combined effect of these was that at the wrong time, it could be (literally) impossible to get in or out of our own home.
I am still glad that there was never a serious fire or medical emergency. An ambulance would have taken an extra 10-15 mins to get in at times, whereas a fire engine would not have stood a chance.
We took advice about clamping but were told then (early 90's) that the best we could safely do was to put up big signs threatenting to clamp. We did, but no-one took a blind bit of notice.
If private clamping is not allowed and local authorities will not provide enough short stay parking for the needs of local businesses, exactly what should people in that position do?
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You managed to find a Warden DH? I always thought they teleported in to place a ticket then vanished again. Despite witnessing many cars sporting a fresh parking ticket I cannot once recall actually seeing a Warden writing out said ticket!
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Up here in Scotland believe it is illegal to clamp cars for parking illegaly. Think the crime is extortion. Only time we see clamps is on untaxed vehicles.
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>>There is another side to the story.
Indeed there is. In the office we have about 4 parking spaces less than we need on an average day.
We can live with that, there is an overflow. However, on an average day we were losing another 20 - 30 spaces a day with non-employee vehicles. Sometimes from other companies, sometimes shoppers, sometimes people walking the damn dog.
For three months we put stickers on windscreens, car parking attendants, and extremely large signs on all the lamposts threatening clamping and nothign made a difference
Finally we recruited a clamping company.
They took a huge amount of abuse (they were big enough for it not to become physical), I got endless phone calls, and a huge furore (sp?) erupted.
All of it coming from people with nothing to do with us, parking on land that we own and maintain for our own use, who were ignoring all signs telling them not to do it.
We got comments about parasites, and vindictiveness, and making money from the poor man etc. etc; about how it wasn't their fault for one of a million unlikely reasons.
Who do these people think they are ? If it says no parking, it means no parking. It doesn't mean no parking - unless you want to and you think its not for very long anyway and obviously for a reason that you see to be completely valid.
If you don't park there, it doesn't matter how quick they are, they cannot catch you. And if its not your land, and you're not paying for it, why on earth should you think you have a right to park there in the first place?
I don't agree with signs which are deliberately difficult to see btu people do get rather silly about it. Its my land, its my parking place and its not yours - you already knew all of that. You just thought you could get away with it scot free and didn't realise that I could cause you at least as much annoyance as you were causing me.
Essentially "I knew I was doing wrong, but your sign saying you would punish me for it was too small and therefore its your fault".
Ok, there are exceptions where it is ridiculous, but most of the time its not.
So what is the complaint ? That you cannot park on my land without getting clamped and having to pay money ?
Tough.
Now I'm going to lie down in a darkened room.
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- In the office we have about 4 parking spaces less than we need on an average day -
Mark - I've thought of a solution to that - you could probably get two Yarises in the space of one of those great big dangerous Land Cruisers......
helicopter takes off swiftly and hovers well out of the firing line ........
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Take it easy Mark. You are just about to blow a gasket (motoring link) :-)
Alyn Beattie
I'm sane, it's the rest of the world that's mad.
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Adrian M -
The clampers boss was actually filmed and when asked why he didn't make the signs larger and put them closer to the ground his reply was that it would make them easier to see and they would not generate as much revenue! I don't call that reasonable.
The operatives were indeed the burly , tattooed characters with whom you do not argue and I feel sure that had the cameras not been there they would have intimidated the parkers into parting with their hard earned cash.
I asked in an earlier thread - could this be construed as demanding money with menaces ?
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Considering the extortionate cost, probably worth deflating tyre, remove clamp, move car onto road, change tyre and drive off
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I didn't see the program but what you describe is exactly how I would envisage a clamper outfit, hence my first sentence, "The sooner clamping is made illegal the better, it is simply a way for bullies to extort money...."
By "reasonable" I was referring to the fact that it is reasonable to expect a pub carpark to be private property - not any reference to the behaviour of the clampers (who I would expect to be extremely unreasonable!).
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at my6 office it is a private car park, and the company has been given two permits. We have five cars.
We saw mr clamper approaching and so we wnt out to ask him not to clamp us as we are applying for extra permits at the moment.
No problem he says, simply move you cars out of the bays, and onto the road surface of the car park.
Apparently his jurisdiction was only those cars in bays without permits! so if we werent in a bay he didnt care!
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