So that’s it.With the enactment today of the Protection of Freedoms Bill wheel clamping on private land will be banned from October. Or will it? The Protection of Freedoms Act allows for Local Authorities, the DVLA, the police, and all those with lawful authority to continue using wheel clamps. It is vital that motorists and landowners know just how lawful authority is defined and so far government isn’t saying.
Could it be the private companies who run the railways and allow us to park on their land? Could it be the National Parks, the Port Authorities, or any other body established by statute? Perhaps parish councils even?
The reality is that two years after Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone MP first announced moves to introduce the ban in 2010 – and some twenty years since the Denver Boot first appeared on these shores, during which time tens of thousands of motorists have found their vehicles illegally immobilised with little interest shown by government – we are still in a state of confusion.
Countless hours of TV programming and radio debate, and an endless stream of column inches in the press, have been devoted to this source of misery to motorists. And yet it seems set to continue. BBC Watchdog producers must be counting their lucky stars.
Oh, and by the way, wheelclamping isn’t being banned in Northern Ireland at all. So if you are ‘just jumping in’ this summer and using a car, park carefully.
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