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Cowboy Clampers Legislation

Cowboy Clampers Legislation

By: Paul Campbell

I welcome the news that the Government are to clamp down on the cowboy clampers. This is long overdue and something I have been campaigning for in the last year. Ministers have announced the creation of an Independent Tribunal that drivers can appeal to if they are clamped on private land. Now clampers can be ordered to refund in full any unfair fines or towing charges or pay out large compensation. The company's used by private landowners to carry out clamping on their land will now have to be licensed by a central authority.

Unregulated firms have been bringing in up to £1billion a year, in what has been described as 'legalised mugging'. Now they can face up to five years in jail and they will also have to cap the amounts they can charge which in some cases in the past could be as much as £500 this will now be more than halved.

In recent times we have found in Culcheth that a private landowner has been using just such a firm to target unsuspecting motorists using a car park at Lodge Drive in the village while shopping. In my campaign against this practise I have received many complaints from drivers and residents all like me totally opposed to its use. I have written to the land owner and met with them asking that they consider other methods for controlling access to the parking areas without success. Maybe the fact that now the Government is at last clamping down on this type of parking control and also that private landowners using such cowboys can be fined up to £3000 if they are not a properly regulated company will stimulate their imagination into using a more sensible and acceptable means of allowing access to their land. I would be interested in your comments.

Tags: Paul Campbell Culcheth, Glazebury & Croft Leslie Hoyle Transport