Highway Robbery? You guessed it ... Camden Council again.

Highway robbery. And that’s official
They took my car away. I am powerless
Hugo Rifkind
From The Times
July 3, 2009
Away on holiday, and the bastards stole my car. I’ve spoken to the police but they can’t help. These bastards, you see, they’re connected. They’re the biggest, meanest, most chiselling bunch of organised crooks from WC1 to N3. They’re known by all sorts of names, many of them unprintable. To most, though, they go by the moniker of “Camden Council”.

We’re talking actual stealing here. I am faultless. They suspended a parking bay, on which my car was parked, and then, because I hadn’t moved it, they took it away.

What could I do? I wasn’t there. I didn’t even realise it had gone until yesterday, when I cycled past the place where it glaringly wasn’t. Did they just move it across the street, so they could get on with their lives? Did they hell. They took it to the pound and they want £260 to give it back.

That seems a pretty clear case of theft to me. And extortion with menaces, to boot. The Mob insists otherwise. They seem to feel they’re punishing me. But what for? Do they think I should have driven to the South of France? With my whole family? In an old Mini?
“You might get it back on appeal,” said the bloke from the council, who was keen to be helpful. Appeal? Might? Get it back? God, I wish we could swear on this page. You steal my car when my back is turned, steal my money to my face and then expect me to feel grateful that I’m allowed to beg for it to be returned?

And there’s no way out. If I don’t pay up, they’ll ratchet the fine up by £40 a day for 56 days until it’s almost two and a half grand. Who can afford that? I can’t. Even some members of the Shadow Cabinet probably can’t.
And if I just let them squash it (and I’m tempted, even though I've owned it since I passed my test and it would probably make me cry) then — get this — I still have to pay £120. For the parking ticket. Which they issued to my car, which I had parked entirely legally, so that they could steal it.

Does it look terribly self-important, for a columnist to bang on about this sort of thing just because it’s happened to them?

Sure, probably. It just struck me, as I hung up, sweating, that maybe columnists don’t bang on about these little miseries enough. We always worry about the big things; the fiddled expenses, the bomb plots, Jordan’s boobs, the lies that lead to wars. It’s the little things, however, that pollute our lives so much more. The receptionist at A&E, your electricity bill, the new wheelie bin, the traffic jam, the cancelled flight, the delivery that never arrives.

It’s the powerlessness, always, against these shapeless systems that seem to hate us, and leave us no option but to hate them back. It’s awful. What a way to live. What a place. What bastards

Private clamping 'legally shaky'

BBC News

By Tom Symonds
Transport correspondent, BBC News
The clamping of cars by private companies in England and Wales is legally shaky and could breach human rights, the RAC Foundation has claimed.
It says sometimes "exorbitant" fines are demanded without legal process and it wants to see laws changed.

Clamping cars also prevents drivers from putting right the obstruction they caused, the motoring body argues.
The Home Office is carrying out a consultation and intends to tighten the regulations governing private clampers.

Private clampers are separate from the council parking attendants who look after on-street parking and public car parks.
They have the right, on behalf of the landowner, to clamp a vehicle and charge the owner for the clamp to be removed.

The current regulations require signs to be prominently displayed to warn drivers.
Individual clampers also have to be registered with the Security Industries Association in England and Wales. Clamping is outlawed in Scotland.
The Home Office consultation proposes a new system of regulation under which both individual clampers and their company have to be accredited and vetted.
They would have to introduce an appeals procedure for drivers who believe they have been unfairly treated.

'Perverse'
But in the RAC Foundation's report, barrister Dr Chris Elliot says clamping by such companies could breach human rights.
"The Home Office is proposing a new licensing regime for private clampers but it is arguable that, if the release fee is unreasonable, their actions are incompatible with the Human Rights Act 1998, which demands that punishment should only come after a proper legal process."
He also argues clamping is perverse.
"The purpose of clamping is to prevent a vehicle being removed from land it should not be on," he says. "It causes the harm to the landowner to persist. It is in effect, a 'self-inflicted wound'".
The RAC wants someone to challenge the law in court, or for the government to set out new legislation to legitimise clamping.

Currently, some companies stick to the rules and keep the fee they demand for removing the clamp within guidelines issued by the British Parking Association.
But the industry has a major problem with "cowboy clampers".

In one case, 18-year-old Emily Ritson found her car had disappeared nine minutes after a parking ticket expired at 10 o'clock at night. The police told her it had probably been removed by a clamping company.
Her father, Nigel, told the BBC: "I was really upset and angry because she's only 18 and she was 80 miles from home."
"I suspect they just towed the car away the second the ticket had expired."
After he was asked to pay £390 pounds to get it back, his response was: "You've got to be kidding. She was only nine minutes late."
Emily had to be rescued by a distant relative because the company would not return her car until the morning.
Mr Ritson said: "The man on the other end of the phone just said 'That's not my problem' and put the phone down on me."
Mr Ritson later won compensation in court.
'Stupid money'

But there are legitimate operations which stay within the current, fairly loose rules.
Approved Parking Services, in Maidstone, Kent, told the BBC it was a licensed clamper that charges £125 to remove a clamp.
But the company claimed other companies worked without proper accreditation.
Craig Reade, the company's managing director, said: "I know of cowboys who put four clamps on a car and then charge £200 for each one to be removed.
"Some of these vehicles aren't even clamped. They're being towed away and charged stupid money to get them back."
Mr Reade said he was regularly approached by local landowners wanting their land patrolled. His company provides the service for free, but keeps all the proceeds from the fines.
However, motorists are not afraid to fight back.
Experienced clamper Clive Woodend said he had years of abuse from motorists.
"I've been kicked, punched, threatened with being stabbed and all sorts. People don't like to accept being clamped."
Clamper Clive Woodend: ''I have been kicked and punched''

A £50 bounty for every car clamped: Scandal of motorists targeted on private land

Daily Mail
'Bounty hunter' wheelclampers are being paid £50 for every car they immobilise.
Private firms are offering the service free to landowners - and are paying their workers commission from the charges they impose to free the vehicle.
Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat Transport spokesman who uncovered the figures, said clampers were being given an 'outrageous' incentive to immobilise vehicles for profit.

His party has produced a dossier which shows firms touting for business.
One internet advert for a company named Crown Guarding, operating in the Hertfordshire area but giving only a mobile phone number as a contact, is offering £50 per vehicle commission.

It sets a minimum target of 'five clamps per day' and is looking for a clamper 'prepared to work hard and who is hungry to earn money'.
The scandal coincides with a report from the RAC Foundation saying that clamping companies are acting illegally by imposing an exorbitant charge for releasing cars which have been clamped or towed away.

The RAC says the law is wrong and 'open to challenge', and that it will support with its evidence any attempt to challenge it in court.

Both the RAC Foundation and the Liberal Democrats are calling for car clamping on private land to be outlawed altogether, as has been the case since 1992 in Scotland where anyone trying it is guilty of 'extortion'.

'Private land' ranges from pub car parks to derelict lots in city centres and even land belonging to church buildings and community centres.
The Home Office is consulting on a review of clamping legislation and expects to issue a report which will propose compulsory licensing of clamping companies rather than simply their employees.

The LibDem dossier highlights scores of companies offering commission-only or free clamping services.

One, Regional Parking Services, said: 'Our services are completed free of charge.
Yes, that's right. You (our client) pay us nothing for regulating parking on your private property. This includes our wheel clamping services, vehicle towing and illegal parking.'

Mr Baker said: 'It is outrageous that a private company, whose income may be directly related to the number of clamps put on vehicles, can demand huge sums from motorists who may well have committed no offence or infringed no parking conditions.

'It is quite wrong that there should be financial incentives for private companies to go round clamping vehicles.
'Clamping should be carried out only by public bodies such as the police or councils, or agents acting for them on a fixed-contract basis.'
He added: 'In other cases, such as with parking tickets, a motorist has a right of appeal to the courts.

With clamps, they have to pay up there and then if they want their car back, no matter how exorbitant the fee, and even if they think it has been wrongly issued.
The RAC report says wheel clampers are acting illegally by imposing huge charges for the release of cars parked on private land.

The concept of one citizen 'punishing' another is alien in English law, according to barrister Dr Chris Elliott.
He adds that clamping vehicles on private land could also breach human rights and is 'perverse'.
Dr Elliott said: 'The Home Office is proposing a new licensing regime for private clampers, but it is arguable that, if the release fee is unreasonable, their actions are incompatible with the Human Rights Act.'

£120 parking fines for motorists while vandals, shoplifters and drunks just need to say they'll be good.

When will you reach tipping point?

Parking fines increased to £120 but vandals, shoplifters and drunks just need to say that they'll be good and their fines are waived. If ever evidence was needed that the motorist was simply the most convenient victim of this highly lucrative stealth tax then this is it.

Enforcement is easy. Detection is simple ...one electronic request to the DVLA. Then punishment should you wish to resist ... could be you'll lose your car.

... and don't forget that the 'independent' adjudicators, NPAS (and PATAS) are financially dependent on the parking enforcement 'industry' too. In the case of NPAS they receive 60p from EVERY ticket issued (outside of London). Do you class that as independent?

Motorists face £120 parking fines
By Stephen Adams
Daily Telegraph
19/03/2008
Motorists are facing a significant increase in the cost of parking fines under new laws giving councils the power to issue tickets of up to £120.
Higher fines will be issued to motorists who park on a double yellow line on important routes.
The laws, which come into force at the end of the month, enable local authorities, for the first time, to set different levels of fines for different parking offences.
In London, motorists face fines of up to £120 while outside the capital the maximum penalty will be £70. More

Now read this

Vandals can avoid a spot fine by saying they'll be good
Evening Standard
30th May 2007
Shoplifters, drunks and vandals will escape paying on-the-spot fines if they promise to behave for a few months, it emerged last night.
Thousands of yobs will be let off with "deferred" fixed-penalty notices each year.
Where once they would have been hauled into court, criminals will have their £80 fines suspended if they sign an Acceptable Behaviour Contract. More ...

If this does not make you realise that you have to stand up to be counted to prevent the escalation of this absurd dichotomy then there is no hope.

ParkingAppeals.co.uk is committed to ending the injustice and abuse motorists are facing in the name of what purports to be 'parking enforcement' which is now perceived by the majority as nothing more than a form of licensed highway robbery which makes Dick Turpin look like a pillar of virtue.

British Parking Awards knees up ... Littlejohn at his best

And the Lovely Rita Award goes to ...

4th March 2008

Richard Littlejohn

Daily Mail

This week's glittering edition of You Couldn't Make It Up comes live from London's Dorchester Hotel, home of the 2008 British Parking Awards.

Initially, I assumed it was a spoof - especially when I discovered that it was to be hosted by the comedienne Meera Syal, of Goodness Gracious Me fame.
But, no. It's kosher. Even my fevered imagination couldn't come up with this one.
On Friday, 500 assorted traffic wardens, wheel-clampers and multi-storey merchants will assemble for the "the foremost event in the UK parking calendar".


The 2008 British Parking Awards:

A gathering of 500 of the most hated people in Britain

They'll be treated to a champagne reception, complete with can-can dancers, before the gongs are dished out.

Categories include Off Street Parking Team Of The Year; Joined Up Thinking: The Innovation Award; and Parking Person Of The Year.

The £99-a-head bash is sponsored by, among others, the debt collection agency Equita; NCP; and The Enforcer, described as "a quarterly magazine dedicated to the growing sector that enforces regulations, issues penalties and recovers debts".
It's appropriate that the parking industry's house journal takes its name from a Dirty Harry movie.
I wonder if the journalists who produce it - and probably went into the trade dreaming of Woodward and Bernstein - ever thought their careers would turn out like this. I'd rather sell the Big Issue outside King's Cross station.

Friday's ceremony will see 500 of the most hated people in Britain gathered together in one place for an orgy of self-congratulation over the misery they inflict upon others.

More ...

One company which wasn't on the official list of invites was Parking Appeals Ltd.

It could possibly be that our ticket got lost in the post ... along with thousands of Notice to Owners, Charge Certificates and other paperwork.

Perhaps we'll have our own Dick Turpin Highway Robbery Awards ... any nominations and categories?

Seal your suggestions in an envelope and if you cannot stick it on the car just put it in the post.