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  • "
    webess wrote:
    BigFigure wrote:
    webess wrote:
    BD-BornBred wrote:
    There is some really immature behaviour on here, I'm sure the trolls know who they are. Anyone that exploits deserves to be sorted out and if this helps then great. Any immature responses to me will be ignored, don't feed the trolls.

    I think private land owners deserve to be able to turn their land into car parks or whatever they please subject to planning permission. However if you take the mick and exploit you deserve to have action. They got away with this for far too long.

    There must be genuine people this will affect though, and I am not talking about this Haworth car park, like I say, they got away with this for too long. Make an honest/fair crust like you should!

    To add to this, Bradford council need to sort themselves out too. A family member was fined for the bus lane on market street, when it was all very new. They have been alienated and think the council are a bunch of you know whats. It is ridiculous that they are as bad in my opinion, no leniency at all, don't want to listen to a story or have any compassion. There is no respect on parking/lane matters at all and once bitten that word of mouth destroys Bradford. It is another reason to go elsewhere. The same applies to tyre damage from potholes. Don't we pay road tax to sort them out? And if you're responsible, put your hands up and cough up, not drag on until we are alienated and think you're again, a bunch of you know whats...

    Wake up Bradford council, you're a joke and no wonder it's hard for businesses to invest. Make it easy to do business with, we need stimulus and growth, not heads in the sand, old ways, alienation, distrust all in the name of a few quid!
    The council will make £35 from each ticket - less admin, that's a profit of around £20.

    However the cost to local business will be several hundred pounds per ticket. For example a friend of mine got caught out by the current scam the council are running in Wibsey. As a consequence I no longer visit Wibsey, at a cost of a couple of grand a year to their local economy.
    What's the scam in Wibsey? Don't want to get caught out
    The Wibsey scam - Some streets have been made "permit only parking". There's no signs at the street entrance, just tiny signs at the road side. Very easy to turn in from a main road and park up.
    The restrictions are 24/7 and the council have wardens even going round in the evening dishing out tickets.
    A friend of mine was caught out. There's nothing in Wibsey I can't get elsewhere so elsewhere I now go...
    Ah....funny that, I saw those "tiny"signs last time I was there and parked further up the road...not much of a scam, is it?"
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Haworth joy as clamping ban law gets Royal Assent

7:10am Wednesday 16th May 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Marc Meneaud , Aire Valley Chief Reporter

The Changegate car park in Haworth The Changegate car park in Haworth

Wheel clampers who act like “modern-day Dick Turpins” will be banned from operating on private land under a new law welcomed by former Speaker of the Commons Betty Boothroyd, businesses and visitor attractions in one of Bradford district’s most important tourist honeypots.

Campaigners have been battling for more than a decade to rid Haworth’s notorious Changegate car park of its clampers, following years of negative publicity about how their behaviour drives away tourists.

It is hoped there will be a boost in visitor numbers to the famous village where the Bronte sisters lived, when clamping on private land becomes a criminal offence later this year under the Protection of Freedoms Act.

Those who have fallen victim to the Changegate clampers include the former Speaker of the Commons, Betty Boothroyd, who was clamped in 2008 while visiting Haworth with a friend after their valid parking ticket fell face down on the dashboard of their car to obscure it.

Welcoming the new legislation Baroness Boothroyd, told the Telegraph & Argus: “It is about time. People have been taken for a ride by these cowboys for too long.”

The life peer added: “They are just cheating the public. I was very annoyed about it at the time and have had masses and masses of letters since, from overseas visitors to Haworth, about these people who have thoroughly shamed the area by what they have done.”

At the time, car park owner Ted Evans accepted that the pair had bought a valid ticket but said it had not been displayed properly.

Stephen Whitehead, a trustee of the Bronte Society who has been campaigning for a change in the law for more than a decade, said: “There has been a catalogue of complaints against the Haworth clampers.

“I have seen old men shaking and old women crying after receiving a punishment that was completely disproportionate to any crime they may have committed. Because it has been so outrageously administered, it has given Haworth national and international publicity – which has been totally negative.

“Everyone involved with the tourist industry in Haworth has been affected because it has stopped people coming.

“This will remove that blight from the village.”

Former Keighley MP Ann Cryer, who is president of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, said the railway group had been “very upset” for years about the effect of clamping at the Changegate car park on tourism.

She said: “That sort of rogue operation had tarnished everything and I’m just delighted that it will be stopped.”

Worth Valley Councillor Glen Miller, Bradford Council’s Conservative leader, said the “long overdue” Bill which received Royal Assent this month, would stop others suffering similar “traumatic experiences”.

He said: “In many cases we have heard of the unwelcome and traumatic experiences endured by many people, often when simply leaving their vehicles unattended whilst they go in search of change to purchase a valid parking ticket.

“It will make it harder for unscrupulous clamping companies to act like modern-day Dick Turpins. Rogue operators will now have to rely on the parking charges they receive rather than the clamping fines they extort to remain in business.

“I know this will be very welcome news to the business owners in Haworth, who rely on the tourism industry. Too often they have had to bear the brunt of visitors’ anger when they have been clamped and see the practice as one which has tarnished the reputation of Haworth and prompted those visitors never to return.”

John Huxley, chairman of Haworth Parish Council, said: “For many years I have been campaigning for a change in the law. I respect the right of any private car park owner to charge for providing a service and have a reasonable scale of charges for people who do not obey the rules.

“We will have to see if the Government gets this right but, if they do, it will be a massive, massive lift for tourism.”

Mr Evans was unavailable for comment yesterday.

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