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Swan Valley dampers cost me a week's profit
Page 17
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I WOULD BE interested to know whether any ether readers of Commercial Motor have been wheelclamped in Swan Valley Park,North-ampton, while they were waiting to enter their delivery there.
On Monday 4 May I had a delivery for Outdoor Group in Swan Valley, but as I was too early they told me to go away and come back later.
As I drove round Swan Valley there was absolutely nowhere to park and there were signs on lampposts advising of wheeiclamping. This must be the first trading estate that I have ever been to where you can't park anywhere at all.
So I returned to the gate at the Outdoor Group and just to the right of it there was a disused layby off the road.
decided to park there as I couldn't go anywhere else due to the tacho and the value of the load and there was not a visible "no parking" sign around.
I had been there for about half-an-hour when noticed a van that had pulled up behind me, which I thought might have been thieves.
I went to get out of my cab and within 20 seconds they had sneaked up behind my back wheel and clamped me.
I felt intimidated by two dampers who demanded £155 to take the clamp off.
I phoned the police, who said they could do nothing as it was private property and the dampers (National Clamps) had total control of the whole area.
Things are tough at the moment as a selfemployed driver, so at 10am on Monday morning that was my week's profit out the window. Kelvin Purcell Heathrow Flyers
Ed's note: National Clamps chairman Trevor Whitehouse tells Commercial Motor: "There are 60 signs at Swan Valley and every one of them says the same thing: no stopping at all'.
"The reason we do it is because our European partners and allies come into the site to park up overnight. Then they mess on the grass verge and pee all over the place. Swan Valley's owner said enough is enough. It is not my decision. I am just a wheelclamper."
Whitehouse adds that National Clamps has been running enforcement at Swan Valley Park since March 2005 and the company was charging less than the national average of £250 to remove clamps.