I sympathise with Monica Hart fined £365 for her sons illegal parking.Parking control companies and indeed councils themselves appear to abandon common sense and in some cases employ dubious tactics in order to extract parking fines from motorists.
On two previous occassions when I have received parking tickets which I believed should not have been issued I sent appeals well within the allowed period. Both times the next communications I received from the council were charge certificates increasing the original fine to £180. When I protested I was informed that my appeal correspondence had not been received by them !!.
Again on the 20th August 2008 I was alleged to have parked in a loading bay at 10.23pm.On the 29th August 2008 I was issued a pcn which I only received in the post on the 5th September 2008. In the light of the two previous instances when I was informed my appeals had not been received I decided to appeal on line assuming they could not deny having received it. Silly me !! I appealed on the 10th September 2008 and was given a reference number to quote on any correspondence.On the 23rd October 2008 I received from the council a charge certificate increasing my fine to £180 as I had not appealed within 28 days.On the same day I telephoned the council office who confirmed that no appeal had been received from me despite me quoting the reference number I had been given. I was told that my only recourse was to write to the council office explaining the position which I did on the 27th October 2008 enclosing hard copies of the completed form and all other relevant correspondence.Their reply dated 5th November 2008 was their standard rejection notice informing me that they were unable to consider my correspondence as representations were not made within 28 days and if I dont pay within 14 days they will have the charge registered as a debt at the county court and issue an order for recovery. Is it just coinsidence that they have not received my two letters of appeal or my on line appeal or is there a deliberate poicy to extract the maximum from each ticket?.
For the record my "offence" was pulling in to a loading bay at 22.23pm to pick up a passenger and I was observed for 3 minutes and 18 seconds according to the charge notice. Had the mitigating circumstances been considered the ticket would more than likely have been cancelled hence it would appear the apparent "non receipt according to their records".

MR TONY CAFFERKEY
43 LAKESIDE ROAD
PALMERS GREEN
LONDON N134PS

iv just read about a lady that got clamped by l.s.c. it really up sets me when people run clamping companys down they have a job to do so why cant people just let them do what they have to do. if you dont wont to get clamped dont park where your not meant to park and you wont get clamped. people only get up set about cos they got cought then take it to the papers to run them down.

I no what its like to be clamped i had to pay £522 couple years ago it was my own fault i was in a hurry and i did not see the signs people are quick enough to blame these clamping companies but end of the day there doing a job you cant just park anywhere you like anymore like we all use to and think its ok but what people cant come to terms with there is a simple answer IF YOU TAKE A CHANCE AND PARK WHERE YOU SHOULDNT THEN YOUR GOING TO GET CAUGHT i tried everyway possible to get a refund but they was in the right and i was in the wrong its not the end of the world you took a chance and got caught

In response to the last comments made by Chloe and Angie, there is no issue as to whether the car was parked illegally. My mother was fully aware of such and accepts responsibilty for this.

What was unfair was the level of sanctions that were applied in view of the 'offence'.

The aim of a clamping company should be to regulate, control and prevent parking in a 'reasonable' manner and to sanction 'appropriately'.

The sanctions were not appropriate and the signage would easily lead someone to believe that there were 3 forms of sanctions when in fact these were null and void. The representative chose to apply all at once - this was simply unreasonable. Surely it would have been reasonable to just infact tow the vehicle and apply one charge for towing or to fine the vehicle and allow a window of 10-15mins before clamping. This is how most genuine companies generally work.

Clearly the clamping company's aim was to gain as much money as possible as they could at once.

I regularly venture into certain hotspots in or around central london and the sanctions applied by private and governmental agencies there do not equate to what happened in this case.

This is simply a case of misleading information and inappropriate conduct. Companies like this should not be allowed to take advantage of a situation to the extent to which they are acting 'unreasonably'.

Infact, there are plans for car clampers to be banned from charging motorists what they like under a government crackdown.

Taken from the telegraph.co.uk:

"New plans are being considered by a Home Office agency that drivers clamped on private land anywhere in England or Wales would just pay a flat rate release fee of around £135"..."Motorists would also be allowed a grace period to move their car within 10 minutes of overstaying".

It seems that even the SIA who regulate and license clampers are aware that there is a problem in this area and are moving towards a possible solution in the future, and so they should.

if she was fully aware that her 18 year old son parked illegally then why did she not stop him parking there. if that was my son i would make him pay the fine then he would think again about parking where he was not ment to park. people bring clamping companys in to do a job and STOP PEOPLE parking where they like, keep up the good job to all you clamping and parking ticket people you all do a good job

most clamping companies signs display a warning telling people its private property and by parking without the landowners consent you are tresspassing upon the property what i cant understand if there are signs displayed then its the drivers fault for parking there everyone is quick enough to blame clampers when it seams the only people to blame is the people who park there

They de-criminalised parking offences and let Councils have a nice little earner. The criminals now carry wheel clamps instead