End of road for private land wheel clamping in Gloucestershire

“Ms_Superstar - not quite. I expect the Winchcombe Street private car park will still be monitored by the same company, sat in their van in the corner. So as soon as they see somebody park up and leave the site, they'll slap a parking ticket on the car's windscreen. They are (were) like grease-lightening in applying a clamp, so getting a ticket made out and stuck onto a screen should be a walk in the park for them.

Thereafter, it's the landowner who will chase anybody who doesn't pay the fine. So the parking enforcement companies will still lie in wait, ready to pounce, but won't then be responsible for chasing up non-payers. Happy days for the enforcers, whereas the landowner will be the one who has to do the legwork to chase non-payers. But the it's the landowners who employ the enforcers, so fair enough.

The rules on who can park on a piece of private land won't change. If you park somewhere you shouldn't, you risk (and deserve) a fine. At least with clamping / towing away banned you won't then be held to ransom on site by the enforcement company. If you chose not to pay the fine, you then risk being pursued by the landowner once they've obtained your details from DVLA.

Anybody who thinks these new rules mean they can park where they like will be in for a shock.”

“Seems a daft idea to me.
Ok, it will mean a short-term benefit for the vocal minority who abuse the hospitality of the landowner and get caught, but it's a disadvantage for the silent majority in the long run.
Where is the incentive going to be for commercial landowners to provide customer parking in future, when people can just leave their car there and shop at their competitors'? I wouldn't blame the owners of the big three Winchcomb Street shops if they put up bollards at the entrance and stop anyone parking there at all.
Of course, installing ANPR cameras and tracing the registered keeper through DVLA (like Tesco does, for example) is a possible alternative to clamping, but the technology costs money, and surely DVLA will be a bit stretched if everyone does it? Still, it'll be jobs for the boyos, I suppose. And lets not forget the clamping companies who will be forced to close. Better all move to Swansea...”

“If people parked sensibly and with consideration to each other, then there would never have been any need for companies like that to exist.

It is people taking the pee all the time and then crying boo hoo when they get caught and looking for a loophole.

I think the disabled invalid badge holders should be ticketed when parking where they like in Gloucester. I saw one last week, outside co-op in a big fancy jag, did not look ill to me, had gone into witherspoons.”

“"...landowners will have no comeback if anybody uses their land to park...". Utter nonsense, TiG. They will continue to employ private parking companies, who will now issue tickets instead of applying clamps.

I believe the new laws also mean that the registered keeper of the ticketed vehicle can be pursued for payment, if the ticket isn't paid within the agreed timescale. Having to prove who was driving the illegally-parked vehicle at the time won't be a factor. Landowners will have to apply to the DVLA for owner details, so they know what address to serve papers to.

So, I hope the DVLA are geared up for the increase in owner details they'll soon be getting, as drivers think they can get away with not paying their fines. I know from past experience that it can take many weeks for DVLA to provide registered owner's details to landowners, so if the number of requests jumps, they'll be potentially snowed under.

Good that clamping has now been banned, although I wouldn't be surprised to still see the odd story here & there of clamps still being used by rogue operators. What we will see in due course is stories of extortionate fines being slapped onto windscreens, and then further reports of monstrous additional charges being applied when some pillock thinks he/she can get away with not paying the original fine, and ending up owing hundreds in additional fees, interest etc.”

“Now let me tell you folks, when going to town for a 2hr stay and a small fee, pop into Maplins,
a short walk down the street and the town is your oyster... me would'nt go into town if they paid me, online shopping and out of town parks, no stress and home again with an empty wallet... Pour me another drink Trish.”

“I found this bit interesting: -Other changes to vehicle law include extending police powers to remove vehicles parked on private land."

I wonder if this applies to the vehicles of the travellers who park on private land, can we now expect the police to turn up and remove them - I bet there'll be some excuse why they won't be, like it being against their human rights etc. It would be very good if it DID apply to travellers though but I won't be holding my breath on that one.”

“Does this mean that people can come and park in your garden or on your driveway perfectly legally?!”

“Why do you feel sorry for Blockbuster, Maplins and Majestic? If they own the car park in question or have any jurisdiction over it, then they will be allowed to enforce parking regulations in the same way that every other car park does.

What they won't be allowed to do is hire thugs to bully people into paying extortionate amounts of money to free their cars from illegal wheel clamps.”

“I feel sorry for blockbuster , maplin and majestic wines. They are going to loads lots of trade these coming months due to this as people will abandon their cars and go into town so customers of theese shops will be forced to go elsewere .For the people who got clamped its your own fault if you decide to park your car for free walk past 20 signs warning you about clamping then coming back kicking off because you have to pay a fine. Nobody asked you to park there. Plenty of other car parks you can pay to park in.”