CLAMPING FOR ‘WORST OFFENDERS’ ONLY, SAYS CAMDEN COUNCIL

6 July 2006

Widespread car clamping is set to become history in Camden after the council decided last night (5 July) to scrap it - except for the worst offenders.

The council will announce the date on which the new rules will come into force, within the next two months. From that point, most drivers will no longer risk returning to find a wheel clamp if they leave their vehicle in an illegal spot on the borough’s streets. If motorists break the rules they will still be ticketed, but they will not face the additional sanction of a wheel clamp, and the cost and inconvenience of having it removed.

Taking a firm but fair approach, Camden Council will continue to take strong action against the minority of worst offenders. It will clamp vehicles only under the following circumstances:

· Persistent evaders, who cost the taxpayer thousands of pounds, with three or more repeatedly unpaid and unchallenged parking tickets

· Blue Badge fraudsters, who make the lives of disabled people a misery by stealing and using disabled badges fraudulently and illegally

· People who park on housing estates without a valid permit, taking up residents’ spaces. For example non-residents stealing spaces to park for free when commuting

Leader of Camden Council, Cllr Keith Moffitt said:

“Camden Council has listened to residents and is giving them a fair deal on parking. We are stopping clamping those who make a simple mistake, but will continue to clamp the worst offenders. Residents want to see that we are enforcing parking rules as fairly and clearly as possible, to help cut congestion, pollution and traffic accidents on our roads. This is why we will continue to tackle the minority of worst offenders.”

Deputy Leader of Camden Council, Cllr Andrew Marshall added:

“This change is overdue - the strongly held view of residents is that clamping is an unfair and unnecessarily harsh sanction, and stopping its general use on the borough's streets is our response. We're sure people will appreciate the need to keep dealing firmly with those who cause the most serious problems, whilst ensuring our parking policies are open and understandable so the majority of drivers stick to the rules."

The results of a recent consultation also suggested that people in Camden thought the levels of clamping in the borough were excessive. When asked ‘Do you consider the level of clamping in Camden to be: too little; about right; too much; don’t know”, 6 out of 10 respondents said that the level of clamping was ‘too much’.

Camden Council clamped approximately 27,900 vehicles on streets in 2005. Under the new system, ‘worst offenders’ i.e. Blue Badge fraudsters and persistent evaders could total an estimated 900 vehicles. Hence the number of vehicles that could be clamped would be around 3 per cent of the previous year’s figure.

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