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Dad: ‘I won’t rest until clampers release money’

By Hugh Fort
August 11, 2008

A dad has vowed “not to rest” in his battle against a clamping company after his daughter was fined her entire life savings.

David Bradley, 47, called The Wokingham Times on Monday after his daughter Jess, 18, who lives in Heather Close in Finchampstead, was clamped in the Rose Street car park on Saturday, August 2.

Miss Bradley was going to work at Rococo jewellers and left her car in one of the spaces she thought she could use in the car park.

She returned to find her Mini had been clamped and resigned herself to the fact she was going to have to pay the £120 release fee.

However, having waited an hour and a half for clampers, Trinity Parking Solutions, one of two clampers operating in the car park, she was told she would have to pay an extra £250 to cancel a removal truck which the firm automatically send out.

The clampers began patrolling the car park in the last month and have been employed by the some of the shops which own the spaces behind their units to stop shoppers parking there.

Miss Bradley claims she told the clampers to cancel the truck as soon as she phoned them to get them to remove the clamp.

Her father is furious at the fine and says he will fight to get the money back and the clampers out of Wokingham.

He said: “My daughter was fined by these clampers on Saturday.

“She accepts she was parked illegally and had to pay to have the clamp removed. However, they told her she had no choice about the £250 charge to cancel this removal truck.

“She was totally distraught, that is her money she was saving to go to university.

“If it was me, I would have said no and called the police, but these burly blokes turn up and it is very intimidating.”

Miss Bradley added: “They just said, ‘pay the money or we’ll take your car’.

“They didn’t say where or how I could get it back. That scared me a lot, they were very aggressive.

“The signs there aren’t clear at all, but I hold my hands up that I shouldn’t have parked there.

“It’s the removal charge that has cleared me out.

“As soon as I phoned I told them to cancel the truck, but they say they can’t.”

Her father added: “I’m so furious, I took the day off work to try to sort this out.

“Some people lie down and take this sort of thing, but I will fight until I see this company out of Wokingham.”

A spokesman for Trinity said records showed Miss Bradley’s car was parked for several hours in front of a set of fire doors before the truck arrived.

He said the company had every right to remove her car but decided not to leave a young girl stranded.

Wokingham Borough Council has confirmed its trading standards department has received four inquiries about both clamping companies, Trinity and Parking Management Ltd, which The Wokingham Times has also received complaints about.

The department is looking into the information it has received and will conduct an investigation if it feels it is necessary.

The car park is owned by Rock Investment Group, which was in charge of the now doomed Peach Place project.

The company uses Parking Management Limited, but donates the money from its parking permits to Reading-based charity The Berkshire Association of Clubs for Young People.

Chairman Jim Leftwich said: “We would like to make it clear we are nothing to do with Trinity Parking Solutions.

“We received the money Rock gets from parking permits, but have no involvement with the other car parking company.

“We wish the young lady the best of luck.”

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I started this campaign against clampers and want to make it clear that you should point out in your appeal that if they are members of the British Parking Association, they have to work to that code of practise and that states that you can not be charged a clamping and removal fee if you return to the car within 3 hours. I have dealt with the BPA and they did start to try and get additional money for me because they also felt that Parking Control Management had gone against their code of practise. It is available on their website. Hope this helps your appeal. There is no legislation for clampers and as far as I am concerned it is a licence to print money. I think they do watch the car parks as I was clamped within 2 minutes of leaving my car. It is really important that people appeal as some refund is better than none. My contact at the BPA is Richared Hilton and he deals with this type of thing although they don't deal directly with appeals against clampers, but he is really helpful so give him a call. Good luck. Nicky Race