Clampers warning for motorists (From Bromsgrove Advertiser)

Clampers warning for motorists

10:05am Thursday 8th May 2008

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BEWARE of parking outside the Slug and Lettuce in Bromsgrove! That's the message from motorists whose cars have been clamped on land at the back of the pub off Windsor Street.

In many cases the cars were only parked for a couple of minutes before clampers arrived to tow them away.

Witness, Jak Goodknight, said: "Drivers must have been watched by someone from the clamping company who calls the van to clamp the car within minutes. Shortly afterwards the car is then loaded onto a truck and taken away. In one instance a car wasn't even clamped - it was just loaded onto the lorry."

He added: "One lady returned and saw her car being loaded onto the truck in front of her after she was away for ten minutes. There was an awful lot of distressed caused last week."

Mr Goodknight said signage was small and inadequate.

He added: "If this is private land and the owners don't want people to park on it, why don't they make it quite clear that wheel clamping is in progress and use a company that is responsible, and not just out to make a ridiculous amount of money out of people without giving them a proper warning."

A spokesperson for the Bay Restaurant Group, who operate the Slug and Lettuce, said: "It was necessary to restrict the use of parking areas due to people utilising the spaces, thereby causing problems when the premises was due to receive deliveries. They also were occupying allocated parking spaces for the staff causing problems for our employees.

"We have displayed clear signage notifying drivers that are unauthorised to park, that they may be at risk of clamping.

"However, the pub has introduced parking permits for those who are visiting the business and they are available from the pub upon request," added the spokesperson.

"This has clearly been a problem as a number of other businesses in the area have felt the need to protect their parking areas too."

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