Should the practice of clamping be banned?

gu10

or at least reserved only for people with unpaid fines? if someone is actually in the way you'd think the last thing they'd want is for them to be stuck there even longer. the whole thing just smells of extortion to me - if you were wrongly fined you can at least drive home and appeal it later, i'd say a lot of people will just pay up knowing full well the clampers shouldn't have done it but they need their car back.

another thing I noticed in recent years is a lot of 'pay when you leave' car parks being turned into open car parks but with clamping. i suppose its cheaper for them than maintaining a set of barriers but if you stay away any longer than you thought you would there will be a clamp waiting for you. probably the minute your ticket expires

MagicMarker

Clamping should be banned.

They should just two the car away instead.

opinion guy

Nah. Illegal parking should be banned....


Oh....wait....

ANXIOUS

No I don't think it should be banned, it's needed in some cases. But it needs to be regulated.

Max Power1

Should be banned.

At best - although if it were regulated that would be a satisfactory outcome IMO.

ArphaRima

All companies should be regulated strictly by a single independent body. This body should be mandated by the government, empowered by strict and weighty legislation and funded by the clamping companies themselves as the cost of doing business.

In every instance of clamping I have heard of that warranted an appeal, the appeal process was conducted by the company themselves!
So they arbitrate their own decisions. Ridiculous!

The government needs to act on this. Now.
It would be a popular move and I cant understand why national politicans dont do it (town councillors etc might feel differently ie easy source of income).

Opinions?

corktina

should be banned except for people who park in my way.... what d'ye mean? NIMBY?

FearDark

Regulate it or fúck off away from my car with your poxy clamp or it'll end up with the other 3 at the side of my shed.

Cookie_Monster

Should be allowable only by the State, like Dublin Clampers. Any private ones should not be allowed.

Treehouse72

With respect, silly poll because it's not a simple yes or no answer. Clamping for the public good when bad parking is an obstruction or hazard is a good thing. Clamping for revenue raising only is ignorant and wrong.

Zapho

Cookie Monster wrote:

Should be allowable only by the State, like Dublin Clampers. Any private ones should not be allowed.

Exactly. As far as I know, the only people you are legally obligued to pay for illegal parking are the gardai and the county/city council (correct me if I'm wrong here). You're only paying the clamping cowboys for the service of removing the clamp.

Anan1

Clamping rules should always be clearly signposted and only implemented in accordance with the signposted rules. Within that i'm all in favour of it on both public and private property, as it reduces the nuisance caused to me by illegally-parked vehicles.

Hogzy

I dont get why people complain about clamps... Yeah they are a bitch to deal with but so is illegal parking. If your clamped once that should be a warning to you to never illegally park again...

Id pick a clamp anyday over my car being towed away.

bazzachazza

If your car is parked illegally for long enough that it gets a clamp then maybe you should have spent the time better in LEGALLY parking the car so it wouldn't get clamped.

I agree the practice should be heavily regulated. I see lots of shops/businesses that have signs up saying they will clamp blah blah blah. I don't believe Tesco/Dunnes etc should be allowed clamp you.

Hogzy

bazzachazza wrote: »

I don't believe Tesco/Dunnes etc should be allowed clamp you.

My mother was clamped once in a Dunnes Stores. When they came to release her she showed the man her receipt (Over 200 Euro for shopping), receipt for bank, receipt for Lunch and receipt a Holiday Brochure (filled with hand written prices for holidays etc). He released her straight away because she showed him that she needed 3hrs plus to do her daily business all of which was on the grounds of the premises.

So its fair enough if Tescos or whoever clamp people who park their and feck off to work or off to town on the bus or whatever. These places are there for shoppers and if you show the clampers or management that you required the entire time to do whatever on their premises then they will no doubt release you.
Can you imagine the amount of business they would loose if they didnt? In my mothers case she does about 4times in shopping what the clamp is actually worth. No way were Dunnes going to loose out on that for the sake of an 80Eur clamp

Anan1

bazzachazza wrote: »

I don't believe Tesco/Dunnes etc should be allowed clamp you.

Why not? They own the car park, shouldn't they have the right to dictate terms of use? Provided they're clearly signposted, anyone who doesn't like them can park elsewhere.

bazzachazza

Ok yeah I guess your right. Forgot about people dumping cars for free whilst using the bus to commute to work.

djimi

If you ban clamping then what alternative do you propose to stop people parking wherever they feel like it?

Its NCPS that should be banned as they seem to think that they are a law onto themselves, and also by the looks of it are operating in an illegal manner. But that is not to say that the service they provide is not valid, its just operated by a bunch of power hungry ignorant money grabbers. Regulation is what is needed, not banning.

Hogzy

djimi wrote: »

Its NCPS that should be banned as they seem to think that they are a law onto themselves, and also by the looks of it are operating in an illegal manner..

?

djimi

Hogzy wrote: »

?

Im only going on what I have read here, but by the looks of it the manner in which NCPS clamp cars on private property has no legal basis. Have a search and youll find plenty of references to what I mean. I have no idea how true it is tho, hence why I said "looks like" as opposed to "are".

Anan1

djimi wrote: »

Im only going on what I have read here, but by the looks of it the manner in which NCPS clamp cars on private property has no legal basis. Have a search and youll find plenty of references to what I mean. I have no idea how true it is tho, hence why I said "looks like" as opposed to "are".

The solution to that is to provide a clear & transparent legal basis for clamping on private property. Landowners have a perfect right to decide who parks on their property, where, and for how long. People can then decide whether or not they want to park there without fear of being wrongly clamped.

gu10

djimi wrote: »

If you ban clamping then what alternative do you propose to stop people parking wherever they feel like it?

higher fines and follow up on collecting them. this would be a more civil approach imo

also tow away cars that are genuinely in the way. if they are clamped then they must not be causing *that* much of an obstruction

Hogzy

gu10 wrote: »

also tow away cars that are genuinely in the way. if they are clamped then they must not be causing *that* much of an obstruction

I dont think any City/Town council in the country would have the resources to tow away every car that caused an obstruction. The tow truck would be out of commission for at least 30min to an hour depending on the distance it had to travel to the yard where the offending cars are stored.

gu10

Hogzy wrote: »

I dont think any City/Town council in the country would have the resources to tow away every car that caused an obstruction. The tow truck would be out of commission for at least 30min to an hour depending on the distance it had to travel to the yard where the offending cars are stored.

maybe they need to buy a few cheap old russian pick-ups then and convert them into tow trucks

preferably ones with 2-stroke engines if those are available. they could get them for the price of 2 or 3 clamps.

Saab Ed

ANXIOUS wrote: »

No I don't think it should be banned, it's needed in some cases. But it needs to be regulated.

:eek: Christ no. Look what happens when we "regulate" something. The lunatics running the mad house. Banks , Taxis , Phones, Power supply etc etc . If its not a balls up now it will be by the time the regulator would br finished with it

djimi

gu10 wrote: »

higher fines and follow up on collecting them. this would be a more civil approach imo

also tow away cars that are genuinely in the way. if they are clamped then they must not be causing *that* much of an obstruction

The problem with fines is that they do not cause an immediate impact and are therefore seen as less of a deterent. Also its harder to get a fine out of a person after the fact; at least if they are clamped they have no choice but to pay.

I agree with towing cars which are causing an obstruction rather than clamping them as preventing them from moving seems to somewhat defeat the purpose. Towing is not a great all round solution however as it too expensive to enforce for all cases.

ArphaRima

The problem with fines is that they do not cause an immediate impact and are therefore seen as less of a deterent. Also its harder to get a fine out of a person after the fact; at least if they are clamped they have no choice but to pay.

Agreed.

But given the extortionate nature of clamps in that it removes options from the victim/offender I believe stronger legislation should be enacted to protect the average citizen from the rogue operators.

I have been clamped once(by NCPS) in a visitor spot whilst viewing an apartment. Signage was awful. No way any independent arbitrator would have agreed to the clamping. My car was 2 days old, it was midnight in winter and I saw no option. They since changed the signage, but I didnt get my money back. The anger I had that day remains with me now. We need protection from these cowboys.

There are few restrictions to their ability to essentially ensnare, and then extort. I want to place some heavy penalties in their path that might dissuade rogue, marginal or corrupt practice.

Absurdum

Just because a management company or supermarket makes up a rule doesn't make it law.

Clampers should be put on a small island and nuked.

Hogzy

Absurdum wrote: »

Just because a management company or supermarket makes up a rule doesn't make it law.

No not law. But a term of using the facilities for which they provide to visitors, arguably once a person's car stays too long on their property the car is tresspassing.

dr.fuzzenstein

MagicMarker wrote: »

Clamping should be banned.

They should just two the car away instead.