Amendment
to the car clamping ban legislation may allow residents to continue clamping rogue
parkers
Heavy lobbying of legislators to make
them realise the folly of an all out clamping ban seems to reaping rewards.
A
proposed amendment appears to allow the clamping of cars left in residents' parking
spaces, and cars that block the passage of other vehicles and people. Other
exceptions to the ban include vehicles not properly registered or registered abroad.
Posted
7/09/11 House of Lords debated clamping ban 29 November 2011
FBaroness
Hayter of Kentish Town proposed the FPRA's amendment seeking to exempt private
land such as blocks of flats from the clamping ban. FPRA Chairman Bob Smytherman
was mentioned in the debate.
Although the amendment was withdrawn during the
debate there was a commitment from the Government spokesman Earl Attlee to meet
with those peers who spoke in favour of our amendment to discuss the issue in
more detail. Past stages of the bill
The Bill will
reach the Reports Stage of the House of Commons on October 10th 2011 “Commons
Report stage of the Bill has been decided. Please see link – it has today
been officially announced for Monday 10 October”
Parliament
UK: Parliamentary Calendar Latest update 26 July 2011:
The
British Parking Association (BPA) are working on the business case for an independent
appeals service. The government appears to support this, but is not interesting
putting in the legislation.
We understand there is some support in the
Lords for regulated clamping on private land. Battle against
clamping ban lost (but there is still time to improve the defective legislation)
The car clamping Bill (properly known as the Protection of Freedoms Bill)
has now completed its journey through the Committee Stage, where various bodies,
including the FPRA, made submissions. Regretably, there was no retreat from imposing
the ban on clamping and vehicle removal, so freeholders and residents who have
rogue car parking problems are going to be in for a frustrating time. Yet again,
a government has failed to understand, or be bothered with, people that live in
and own flats. However, some concessions were won regarding how parking
offenders can be pursued on private land once the ban comes into force. The vehicle's
keeper will have to identify the driver responsible for parking offences, rather
than the driver, which is the situation now - a loophole that it more difficult
to pursue offenders . Should the keeper refuse to identify the driver, they will
be held responsible. But even this concession comes with strings attached,
namely that it will only apply to vehicles ticketed at the time the offence occurs.
It will not apply to tickets issued later from CCTV pictures or ANPR (Automatic
Number Plate Recognition). Clearly this inconsistency will cause confusion and
make implementation more complicated. Another concession with strings attached
is the right of landowners to move parked vehicles that are causing danger or
harm, to another parking space. The string attached? The landowner has to foot
the cost. So a car parker who causes a danger, such as blocking a fire exit, gets
off without any penalty, and the landowner - that's us as freeholders/leaseholders
- have to pay up. The Committee in its wisdom did not propose any legislation
to stop rogue clampers from migrating into rogue ticketing. There will be no regulation
of car ticketing. Yet at the same time the government seems to expect the industry
to set up an appeals service. Organisations like the British Parking Association
(BPA), Citizens Advice Bureau, Consumer Focus and Trading Standards Instiute all
argue that an appeals process should be included in the bill. Can anything
still be done to amend the Bill? Yes, once the Bill arrives in the House of Lords
for scrutiny, the Lords can be lobbied to make changes to the regulations. The
battle is lost to stop the ban, but lobbying Lords can help to reduce the ensuing
shambles. The FPRA supports the following amendments put forward by the
BPA: 1 - The legal liability of the vehicle keeper should apply
in all ticketing circumstances, otherwise it will be even more difficult for freeholders
to control offenders 2 - There should be a legal framework for the
appeals process 3 - It should be permissable to clamp or remove vehicles
in the following circumstances:
> when vehicles are not properly registered
with the DVLC
> foreign registered vehicles
> persistent offenders
>
parked cars that are causing an obstruction or danger. Please do write
and raise these points to any Lords you know, and to Norman Baker, Minister for
Transport (who is responsible for implementing the keeper liability regulations).
Posted
21/06/11
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