New proposals to put a stop to clamping
Monday 28th September 2009, 2:56PM BST.
If States Members agree, signs like these could be a thing of the past
THE end of wheel clamping in Jersey is moving closer, with the States to debate a ban next month.
However, the exact nature of the ban has yet to be determined and a new proposal has been put forward to make immobilising a vehicle a crime.
Deputy Paul Le Claire put together a proposition after the JEP was flooded with complaints about the way wheel clampers were behaving. The complaints came from people whose vehicles had been clamped and who were forced to pay fines of up to £75 to have them released.
In many cases the clampers insisted on taking the driver to a cash point machine to ensure that they had the money, before the vehicle was freed.
In July Deputy Le Claire submitted his original paper proposing a wholesale ban on vehicles being clamped when parked on private property. His proposition is now down for debate in the States session that starts on 6 October.
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Speaking as someone who pays for a space at the private Gas place site I can present a counter argument. Whilst not agreeing with the tactics of some clampers people like me pay a considerable sum of money to ensure 24/7 access to a designated parking space. It’s a necessary part of my job as I need to show properties to clients throughout the day and be guaranteed a space when I get back. I pay a considerable premium over public parking costs and find it annoying in the extreme when I return to find that someone has parked in my space.
The car park is well signed with the penalty clear for all to see, nonetheless it is a daily occurance to find that I cannot park in the space I have paid for. When I wait and confront the offender I am invariably told “I was only parked for 5 minutes” twelve such individuals an hour and times that by eight and my space is occupied throughout the day by people who have not paid for it and have no right to park.
If you choose to park where you know you should not then you are taking a risk, if as a result you are caught and clamped then you have only yourself to blame. I do not endorse the methods of the clampers, in my opinion they should be regulated but the service they provide is essential in preventing tresspass on private land.
If someone parked on my drive at home without my consent I would set fire to their vehicle, they would say ” I was only popping to the shops” my response “You were parked where I wanted to start a fire”
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Good riddance!
Clamping is nothing more than highway robbery.
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Sorry, can’t help feeling this is wrong, why should the States have the monopoly on ripping off the motorist !!!
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Thicko Micko – why dont the owners of your private car park introduce a gate to the entrance of the car park. Which considering the significant sums you pay for parking should not be a problem.
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Agree with No.1- it’s lovely for “politicians of the people” to want to ban clampers but what will they put in place to help someone trying to enforce parking regulations – public or private?
I suggest we all park in the States Members’ free, reserved parking spaces if this is put through and see how fast the “wrong button” is pressed to correct it.
It’s already a nightmare for anyone on a private road. When morons decide they don’t need to pay in a car park and block our doorways, there is nothing anyone – police or honoraries – can do and we then have to pay to find the owner and remove the car.
The more houses they allow to be built without parking, the worse these problems get. Any chance of some logic?
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Will the unkind traffic wardens now step forward to be counted?
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Thicko Micko, I know it would simply block your parking space for longer but I would let the air out of all their tyres and inconvenience them the way they have inconvenienced you.
In saying that, you can bounce a car out of the way (I have seen it done in the UK when a car had parked in such a way that an ambulance on an emergency call out could not get by), so why not bounce their car out of the way and let them deal with the consequences? Just keep proof on you that it is your personal space (in case anyone spots you).
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A victory for common sense…………Hooray.and good riddance.
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Thicko Micko
Surely when a car is wheel clamped and the owner refuses to pay an exorbitant release fee your space is tied up for a long time meaning you can not use it. What is needed is a deterrent to stop people using it in the first place. A clearly signposted parking fee for unauthorised parking (£100 per hour ?), backed up by the petty debts for any unpaid after a reasonable time should suffice.
Demanding money with menaces, or withholding someone’s property if not, should be illegal.
Leah Holmes
Be very careful !
interfering with a vehicle to make it dangerously unroadworthy is an offence. Also could you live with yourself if your actions or advice caused the death of a child.
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I don’t see how Le Claire can stop people clamping on their own property when someone illegally tresspasses by parking where they know they shouldn’t.
What happens if clamping is banned, there’ll be a free for all with people parking everywhere.As for the JEP recieving complaints from people who have been clamped, what did they think would happen when they parked on private land that is clearly signed as such.
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Gladys -”there’ll be a free for all with people parking everywhere”
What an exageration!
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Seymour comment 11 – “What an exageration!”
That’ll be 2 g’s in exaggeration – honest, I’m not exaggerating.
Why is it an exaggeration, if there ar no measures in place to prevent people breaking the law and parking on yellow lines on public land, or tresspassing and parking on private land, what’s to stop them.
I never park on a yellow line, when we go out in the evening for a meal you see people parked on yellow lines all the time, I think to myself, he or she’s taking a chance. If there was no parking regulation the streets would be gridlocked with lazy selfish people parking where they like.
Look this is simple, if you don’t break the law or tresspass on private property you will not be punished.
What next, let’s get rid of the police?
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I got clamped once for parking in a yellow line to collect a pizza, never done again! People have to learn somehow, if they minded where they parked their cars, they wouldn’t get clamped!
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I am guesing people that want to see the back of clampers are people that happily park in other people’s private spaces and other places they shouldn’t or you wouldnt be bothered by clampers. I am fed up of getting to my space i pay a premium for to find someone else in it. Thicko I used to park in that car park and once found a car in my space (one against the wall) i took a leaf out of their book and parked where ever i pleased which happened to be in front of theirs, the look on their faces when i returned 2 hours later was priceless. To the people that want clamping gone etc is it ok if you provide me your address as I am always after convenient, free parking for corner shops and takeaways and I believe your driveway is availible.
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Ted 14 – I’m with you there mate, the only possible reason for objecting to clamping is because you are someone who parks where they shouldn’t and don’t like the yellow wheel adornments you find attached to your cars.
In my opinion the offending cars should be towed away and crushed.
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It is illegal to clamp a motor vehicle which is parked in a public place or on a place to which the public has access as a matter of fact. An example of the latter would be a pub car park. See the Royal Court judgment in Gosselin v Attorney General 1990 JLR 102. It may be found on the excellent Jersey Legal Information Board website.
There are further legal considerations arising from the fact that the charges are penalty charges rather than the contractual fiction upon which the clampers rely.
If you are forced to pay money to a clamper, the answer is simple. Pay under protest and then sue in the Petty Debts Court. If the individual clamper will not give his name [which, as a responsible security professional, he should do], that can be used as evidence when the time comes.
The DVS is on shaky legal ground when it gives out information which is subject to data protection to anyone other than the police.
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Whilst I accept clamping solves the problem of people simply parking wherever they want, I’m afraid the clamping companies have brought this upon themselves. Their attitude gives the impression they represent the criminal underworld. If they showed an ounce of understanding or compassion in certain circumstances, the general public would be far more accepting of them
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Parking everywhere? Nonsense – How did we ever manage before these blasted wheel clamps were invented? .. Good riddance to them and the sooner the better.
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Gladys Allover #12 – “That’ll be 2 g’s in exaggeration…”
“Why is it an exaggeration, if there ar no measures in place to prevent people breaking the law and parking on yellow lines on public land, or tresspassing..”
“Look this is simple, if you don’t break the law or tresspass on private property you will not be punished.”
Ironic typo’s suck, don’t they?
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For all those that want clamping banned try and drive easily down the side of St clements primary school between 10 to 3 and half past. I have a friend who lives at the end of that road and it can take up to 35 minutes to get up that road between those times and most of the time when we get to the drive parents have dumped their cars there. It may be a case of ‘I was only 5 minutes’ however if you and 20 other people are doing it all along the same road at the same time its not 5 minutes for the people waiting to get through.
If they stop clamping the honarys and traffic wardens need to be out more often to stop people parking on private land. Clamping isnt the best option but they really need to put something in place
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PJG, don’t worry, I would be careful!
#15 Thicko Micko, I have never parked illegally (to my knowledge) but I still object to clamping.
It’s easy to assume that all clampers will obey the law, that none of them will take liberties, go on a power trip, or extort money from innocent people, but experiences from people in England will tell you otherwise.
What about making all parking offences punishable by community service? Gets things done around the island, more equally penalises the rich and the poor, and if you fail to show up for community service you risk a custodial sentence.
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