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Edwin Usifold displays the parking ticket he received ‘in seconds’ |
Estate puts the brakes on in clamps swoop
Residents fight back by sitting on cars in standoff with tow trucks over ‘admin error’
NEIGHBOURS on a Chalk Farm estate resorted to guerilla tactics to defeat an “army” of parking officers in a tense four-hour stand-off.
Some of the residents in Gilbey’s Yard had never spoken to each other before last Thursday afternoon, but with a Blitz-like spirit they rallied together when a team of parking enforcers began clamping cars outside their homes.
They were told they were illegally parked in spaces they had used for years.
Faced with an on-the-spot £176 fine or having their cars towed away, tenants squatted in their vehicles in protest, sitting on the bonnets or locking themselves inside.
Six officers from Camden enforcement firm Park Direct, in three tow trucks and a clamping van, were dispatched to mete out punishment on anyone not displaying permits but met with a barrage of complaints that residents had not been told that their old permits were no longer valid.
An unsuspecting priest, a nurse and a sick mother with a disabled child were all hit in the five-car clampdown until one of the housing associations managing the estate realised their mistake and their failure to inform residents of the change in permits.
Vicky Somerhayes, a tenant, said: “Nobody was informed and no one knew they were coming. What makes me laugh is that there were so many of them. They knew we wouldn’t be prepared.”
Beatrice Addo-Klu, a nurse, needed her car to get to work.
She said: “We’ve been calling the housing office since one o’clock and no one is available to talk. What’s the point of paying taxes and working if we’re treated like this?”
Minicab driver Edwin Usifold found dozens of angry residents out in the street when he returned home from a nightshift. He stepped out of his car to ask a neighbour what was going on. Within 30 seconds he was clamped and ordered to pay a £176 fine.
He said: “By the time I got to my neighbour I had a ticket. I left my hazards on and my keys in the ignition.
“I paid it but I will be appealing.”
Another tenant, who gave her name as Mary, had suffered a car accident last week. Still suffering from whiplash, she had to sit in her car all afternoon, too terrified to even go to the toilet in case the clampers swooped. Her disabled son brought her water.
She said: “I’ve lived here for 10 years and nothing like this has ever happened. They came so wild, like an army coming to invade territory.
“Everybody was screaming and running helter-skelter. I was shaking, begging, I thought I was going to collapse. I don’t have the money to pay.”
Finally, shortly before 5pm, parking officers conceded their mistake and sounded a retreat, removing the clamps as they went.
Management of the estate is shared by the OneHousing group and the London and Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q).
While OneHousing informed their residents of the change, L&Q didn’t send letters out.
An L&Q spokeswoman said: “Due to an administrative error at L&Q, letters informing residents of the changes in parking at Gilbey’s Yard were not sent out ahead of the handover.
“As soon as we were informed by residents of the clamping taking place we immediately contacted the parking company to ensure that all of the clamps were removed and all of the fines cancelled.
“L&Q would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused to residents.” |
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