Parking punishments don’t fit the ‘crime’

Published: 12 August, 2010

• FURTHER to the story about me (‘Punished for being old’ Gran clamped, August 5), I am in fact 70 years old not 60 as stated in inadvertent error.

And the punishment does not fit the crime.  Camden Council behave in a very heavy-handed way in dealing with those law-abiding citizens who transgress their “rules” – rules that are designed to prevent illegal parking but are very useful in extorting money to swell the council coffers, which no doubt goes towards paying the salaries of their officials. The stories of other victims in my block are legion.

The “similar incident in December” referred to in the article was only similar in that Camden Council carried out another clamping – of my sister’s car on a Sunday afternoon – when she parked for a few hours in a space that I knew belonged to a local business that did not operate on a Sunday.  

It was a great birthday present for her.

And I was not reminded of the rules at that time, as the council spokeswoman is reported to have said, unless the clamping of cars is seen by the council as a reminder of the “rules”.
Patricia Wager
Red Lion Square,  WC1