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Parking up at your peril
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Drivers getting clobbered for a £250 release charge after being clamped while taking an emergency break is sending temperatures soaring at a specific service station...
uncovered
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Words: Mike Sherrington images: Andy Forman
Where can you spend a penny but end up having to pay £250? Sounds like a fiddle you'd find in a Christmas cracker. But the answer is not at all funny.
Unfortunately, this is the grim reality facing many HGV drivers who choose to use the M6 motorway services at Knutsford. Cheshire, thanks to a strict wheel-clamping regime run by parking enforcer CP Plus for the service station operator Moto A typical case is the one involving Galashiels-based driver Bob Painter who was driving a tractor unit and three-axle trailer for Dutch-based international haulier Vos Logistics.
Painter explains: was driving from Drolysden in Manchester along the A56 when I suffered stomach cramps and an urgent need to go to the toilet. I had to stop at the first place of safety — Knutsford services. -There were no available HGV parking spaces — they were occupied by a car and a caravan, a motorhome and a minibus. I was faced with a choice: park safely on the end of the parking spaces or drive on and risk having an accident in my trousers, or even worse, a fatal accident. Like any professional driver. I chose the safest option."
The driver's tachograph proves he left his vehicle for only seven minutes, but when he returned his vehicle had been clamped. He was forced to pay a £250 release fee. The dampers refused to accept the argument that it was a genuine emergency. "They just told me I should have stopped at the Lymm truckstop five miles away and that they didn't want my type on the services. I think they meant large lorries," says Painter.
Fruitless appeal
Painter appealed to CP Plus and Moto. He received a letter from CP Plus claiming the parking enforcer was within the law to clamp his vehicle. Moto did not reply. He had to pay the release fee himself — his employers argued parking was his responsibility.
Painter is far from being the only one to be clamped at K nutsford. The motorways services review website Motorway Services Info records comments from five other HGV drivers who were all clamped in similar circumstances in November and December last year.
Just doing their job CP Plus is responsible for parking enforcement on most English motorway service areas. As well as having contracts with Moto, it also works for Welcome Break and Roadchef. Its director, Graham Rose, says: "We are just trying to do a job at Knutsford. 11 is a very tight site and we are just trying to keep the roadways clear. We abide by the law and can't make exceptions for individual drivers."
A spokesman for Moto adds: "We agreed with the Highways Agency five years ago that Knutsford would be closed to HGVs except for emergencies and re-fuelling, and that HGV drivers should use the purpose-built truckstop at Lymm, which is five miles away. We have 1.5-mile boards clearly stating this At Knutsford, we only have 12 HGV parking bays southbound and 31 northbound, but when these are full HGV drivers think they can park anywhere; this causes complaints from coach drivers "To improve understanding we have just installed double yellow lines and clear signs in the HGV areas stating: 'Cars not allowed. Lorries must park in designated bays Clamping in operation:"
Campaign of change
The Highways Agency has confirmed that it agreed to Knutsford being closed to HGVs because it was severely congested, and that it was impossible to expand the site.
However, the whole clamping issue angers the Road Haulage Association's manager of infrastructure environment and business affairs, Chris Roundtree. He states: "I guess part of the thinking of limiting HGVs at Knutsford is that coaches take up the same space as a lorry, but usually hold up to 50 people who will require the services. An HGV usually contains only the driver.
He adds: "We are campaigning to have the law on clamping changed and want to see the establishment of an independent authority to hear appeals. At the moment, they are heard by the parking enforcer themselves We
also want to cut the cost of the release fee. Natalie Chapman, the Freight Transport Association's regional policy manager, says: -Clamping should only be used as a last resort.
She adds: "Potentially disabling a vehicle for a day carries significant cost and delivery implications, which can be far greater than the fine itselL"
The lesson to be learnt from Knutsford services is that HGV drivers should try and avoid it if at all possible. Incidentally, the services is said to be the preferred stop for William Roach, who plays Coronation Street's Ken Barlow, but then he doesn't drive an HGV... •