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Parking chiefs exploit loophole in rules
Carry on clamping – despite announcing it’s no longer parking policy
MORE than 50 drivers are clamped every week in Camden – even though the unpopular penalty was supposedly axed last year, the New Journal can reveal.
Parking chiefs are using a loophole in their agreement to stop clamping which says the freeze should be ‘widespread’ rather than a complete withdrawal.
The Town Hall has promoted the end of clamping as evidence that Camden’s parking regime is fairer under the Lib Dem/Conservative coalition.
But while the change in policy made front page news, officials have ploughed ahead with clamping cars on council estates at a rate which roughly works out at 200 vehicles a month or more than 50 a week.
In the first three months after clamping had supposedly been stopped, 657 drivers were clamped in Camden. Enforcers snared 186 cars in October, 283 in November and 188 more in December.
The figures were released to the New Journal under the Freedom of Information Act.
Labour’s housing spokesman Councillor Roger Robinson said that the council had one rule for middle-class homeowners and another for estate tenants.
He said: “I find it extraordinary that this is still going on. They said it was going to be brought to an end but we all know that it’s still going on. If you are going to end it, end it – but end it for everyone. The way they are doing it, it is all for show.”
Cllr Robinson added: “Why do they clamp on estates and not on the public highway? Because they don’t want to annoy the middle classes. They get rid of it in middle-class posh areas but it’s a different story for working class people in council flats.”
Labour has had to tread carefully over its stance on parking issues after being told by voters last year that it had run the rule over an unfair and unnecessarily tough parking department whilst in power.
The party’s current line is that if they return to power in Camden, they will learn from their mistakes and not bring back the clamps.
But deputy leader Councillor Theo Blackwell said that if clamping continued on estates at such a rate in the meantime then the money raised should go back into improving council housing. The Town Hall yesterday (Wednesday) defended the continued use of clamps, claiming the policy is actually supported by tenants.
A press official said: “The housing offices are getting lots of complaints from residents having problems with people without valid permits parking in their spaces on estates.
“So the rationale for clamping is still the same, using clamping to tackle the problem of people who don’t have permits taking up residents’ spaces on estates.”
She added: “Particular examples are apparently parts of Camden Town near to the congestion charge zone (so people taking a risk of parking on an estate rather than driving in and getting charged), and estates near a lot of commercial premises.”
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