This doesn't suprise me in the slightest at the moment. I have seen warnings from anything like £25 release fee to over £100, and that isn't going back into the government funds, just lining the pockets of some bright spark that saw the potential of a money making enterprise the government has given backing too...basically giving the green light to commit day light robbery! The SIA thing is just another money spinning thing too...my fiance went for a job as a security driver that was advertised in the job centre, hadn't got a license, but that was fine they would do it for him at a cost of over £200...to then not actually get the license, which wasn't for security guarding, it was for door men (although you can use it for guarding)...if he wants the license he has to pay another wad of money! To be honest we have more and more of these stupid things happening in this country, and yeah I agree with you, where the hell is the common sense.....
 

picking up on your 'Government fund' point, you would have thought that there would be somebody looking at revenue and surely they can see that there is a bucket of cash here to be had and put to 'better' use...





thanx for the comment
 

One of the weirdest (and perhaps most disturbing) things I've heard was about 10 or 15 years ago when a friend of a female colleague got clamped in Nottingham. She worked for the company who shared the car park she got clamped in, too. What happened was the pair of them were going to a gig in Notts, which was right around the corner from where she worked. So instead of driving out of town only to travel back in again, she met my colleague at a pub, they had dinner in town, then went to the gig. They left at about 11.30pm to find the car clamped, with the penalty notice on the windscreen, and the only contact info was an answerphone service. Bear in mind this was before mobile phones were widespread, and Nottingham isn't a great place to be late at night even on a weekday.




The problem was that the car park was checked at 8pm every night by the "security firm" that patrolled the businesses. If your registration wasn't on their list you got clamped. It didn't matter if you worked for one of the registered businesses, and they didn't have displayed passes. To cut a long story short she didn't have to pay a fine, but her car had to stay in town over night and they had to be picked up by one of their relatives. Quite a scary experience for the pair of them, when all's said and done.




I suspect regulations might favour us, the general public, a bit more nowadays. That said, the government's anti-car attitude in cities and towns (which in some ways I support) only serves to fuel the ridiculous penalties and restrictions these clamping firms impose, and thus encourage their staff to make the industry more profitable by often barely legal means, and certainly by letter-of-the-law means that never apply human compassion or understanding of individual situations.




I still have more of a beef with traffic wardens though, having come across one who wouldn't give me directions (in Oxford, where I'd never been before) because, and I quote, "it's not my job".

 

That is a nightmare story...


don't get me wrong, I too still have beef with TW's... I have met some real fuckers over the years





cheers fella
 

Ive watched countless Watchdog programmes which feature clampers doing what they please. One of them was quite astounding where they photographed a permit not on display.The problem was that the permit was on display on the dashboard but they had photographed it from the front up thus showing no permit on display as the bonnet wouldnt allow it to be seen. Clamping is a largely unregulated system which allows any tom,Dick and Harry with "appropriate" licence to make others life a misery. The goverment dont seem interested, until of course it happens to one of them.Grrr.

 

its true to say that they are getting away with murder and with all the documentaries reports there still doesn’t seem an end to their scam...





Thanx P



 

For the solution to problem, see http://www. myspace. com/anglegrinderman

He's not active at the moment, but someone should take up his mantle...
 

Blindin... he is a true super hero!!





thanks for that
 

Apart from being a dreadfully boring subject-(the only possibly more boring subject being moaning about traffic wardens) you seem to be confused about apostrophes..eg. your use of apostrophes to denote the' villain is 'by using an apostrophe as in "the new villain's in town" and again "these bandit's.." meaning these bandits is? Apostrophes used in this context actually denote the possessive form-eg. John's hat-they don't represent a missing i...as in is..





The plural "bandits's" you have written really is nonsensical-it would be bandits are as bandits is plural. You may think i'm picky but it destroys the meaning of what you are writing-and you do advertise yourself as a blog writer. A blog writer letting himself down by unneccessarily repeatedly swearing too-shame on you...








ps. here's (here is) a thought..why not get rid of your car like i did-do your bit for the planet and stop whining on like the boring car people do.. When i did have a car-yes i have been done as we all have.






However i have always thought the demonisation of traffic wardens creepy and more than a little nasty, almost justifying the physical violence regularly meeted out to these poor people who are, after all, only doing a job. Clamping yes-it is not great but have it happen once and if you have any sense you take care not to park there again..doh.






Why not stop sounding perilously near to the jobsworths you are mocking and put your spleen towards some weightier subjects that actually matter instead of bleating on whilst betraying your superior circumstances , health, wealth and lifestlye that allows you the time, full stomach and energy to do so...hey-Gaza-now there's somwhere with no clamping problems...............................................................
 

Well thanks for that princessclare and congratulations for getting the word spleen into the comment got to be a first.






I will try to pick a more interesting subject matter next time, something a little more up your street, like "how rude it is to blog about something that princessclare finds boring" or "where is the right place to use apostrophes"... give me a break





I blog about a number of issues, whatever hits a nerve on the day... if you took the time to scan through some of the subjects you would see this for yourself.






Was you actually trying to be funny with your Gaza comment?





Anyway, thank you for your comment



 

I think you'll find that Clare was in fact lam'pooning your blog, amigo. If you note the snooty, supercilious way she began the blog, and then scroll on to where her ability with The Moth'er Tongue in it's written form trails off woefully with "However i", "meeted", and that odd tendency to drop a ".." or two, random'ly into. her post.




My apologies for the seemingly random punctuation. I felt obliged to continue the theme.
;-)



Oh, and on the subject of weighty blogs free of swearing and personal experience, I'd like to share with both yourself and with Clare (or perhaps just "clare"?) the knowledge that teh interweb is utterly littered with weighty blogs on serious topics, and that many of them are simply not interesting.




Now, excuse me as I'm off to sit in my van and eat a Buger King burger while I apply for another credit card, masturbating furiously to hijacked wifi porn on my laptop. No, really.
:-)
 

blindin fella... make sure you eat that burger first!!
 

Clair sounds like the sort of person i'd like to spend my evenings with!


Over-critical frustrated snooty bellend. With an eye for good punctuation and deep environmental views... Oooh! Exciting!
 

Bit late - but here's a tale. An acquantence of mine who lived in one of the worst areas of Liverpool had a clamp of his own which he used to immobilise his car. While away in Manchester (I think) he got clamped with a release fee of £75. He called the company concerned and when the burly chap turned up and was distracted by friends wife complaining about the fee he clamped the clampers car. After a bit of verbal "disagreement" he persuaded the chap that a waiving of the fee and both clamps being removed would save much embarrassment all round.



But yeah - unregulated banditry.

 

I wanna clamp!





hope all is well in your world fella... cheers