Councillor speaks out in Skipton car clamping row (From Craven Herald)

Councillor speaks out in Skipton car clamping row

2:10pm Saturday 11th February 2012 in Local news

Councillor Polly English outside the Cross Keys pub

Pubs and businesses employing vehicle clampers to police their parking areas should be boycotted, a councillor has claimed.

First to be sidelined should be the Cross Keys in Shortbank Road, Skipton, where the Haworth-based Carstoppers has been hired to wheel-clamp cars that park in the pub car park, says local county and district councillor Polly English.

She is calling on Skipton residents to show their distaste for the practice by boycotting the pub after being inundated with complaints from motorists who have fallen foul of the pub’s policy.

Some clamp victims are parking up before they visit Skipton Police Station across the road and officers are so aware of the problem they have put up a sign warning people that they face being clamped.

Clampers have even struck before some owners have reached the police reception desk, it has been reported.

Coun English said: “I suggest that Skiptonians, as a mark of disgust at these abhorrent practices, boycott the Cross Keys.

“There are plenty of pubs in Skipton, some with car parks, who welcome custom, and do not practise these ugly methods of making a ‘fast buck’ for their business.

“It may not be illegal but it is certainly immoral. To clamp someone who has nipped into the police station to report a crime, or the loss of property, smacks of immorality.

“They sit like praying mantis in an unmarked Land Rover waiting for someone to park up and before they have crossed the road they are clamped.”

She said the sign warning people it would cost £150 to get the clamp removed was at least 30 yards from the entrance and could easily be missed.

Among the people who had complained to her was a woman who had called at the police station to report her mother’s stolen watch and was clamped. She had to call for help to pay the £150.

The company also operates in Devonshire Place, Skipton, and in the town’s Court Lane where it has been hired by Craven Court to police an area of land opposite Carmine hairdressers.

Designer John Bollen, of Otley Road, who saw someone being clamped in Court Lane, later discovered the land, opposite Carmine hairdressers, was not owned by Craven Court but by Skipton Building Society.

“I was disgusted. Would anyone want to shop in Craven Court knowing that they have hired these people? I don’t think so,” he said.

But Cross Keys landlady Caroline Wooler, who has been in charge at the Otley Road pub for five years, has hit back saying she had hired Carstoppers as a last resort.

“People have been parking here and going into town to do their shopping or even leaving their cars here all day to go to work.

“I used to put out boards saying it was customer parking only, but people showed no respect and ignored them. They just abused the situation – this is after all a private car park. I just thought enough is enough.

“I don’t wish to sound rude but how would Polly English like someone to park in her drive, go shopping and then use her toilet.”

Miss Wooler said she had allowed people to park in the car park when they had asked and she was happy to let people park there if they came in for refreshment.

“It would be better to come in and buy a coffee for £1.50 than chance getting a £150 clamping fee,” she said.

And Emma Marsden, manager of Craven Court, said: “This was a last resort. The last thing we want is to clamp people – we want people to shop here and everyone is feeling the recession.

“But we have to have access for our delivery lorries and some have been blocked in. We are required to have 24-hour access and if not we can be fined £1,000 if a wagon can’t deliver.”

Carstoppers had been working for only a couple of weeks and they had been hired as a short term measure, she stressed.

A spokesman for Skipton Building Society confirmed the area in Court Lane was owned by them but Craven Court had a legal right of way and a right to take steps to allow general and emergency access. The society was not involved in any enforcement action.