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Clampers in war on workers

From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Tuesday 30th Mar 2004.

TOWN centre workers face fines as clamping companies stage a crackdown on privately-owned car parks in Blackburn.

In the last week clamping has been introduced on the car parks in front of JJB Sports, Halfords and Mothercare at Grimshaw Park and will soon be introduced at the neighbouring Blackburn Arena car park, for people who exceed a maximum two hour limit.

At the Peel Centre car park, which houses office furniture and stationery store Staples and clothing store Matalan, £100 parking tickets are being issued to motorists who exceed the maximum stay.

Clampers also moved in this week at the derelict Millennium nightclub on Cicely Lane.

Morrisons supermarket introduced pay and display two weeks ago on its 300 space car park to deter all-day parking.

A spokeswoman for Peel Holdings, who own the car park at Grimshaw Park, said: "Clamping is not aimed at genuine shoppers but at people who abuse the system by parking all day without using the store." A spokesman for The Wheel Clamping Company, which clamps on the Millennium site, said: "We are under contract from the landowner."

A spokesman for the JJB Superstore : "We have had a lot of people parking in the morning and not coming into the shop but walking in the direction of the town centre. We have not implemented clamping and it is not a policy for us to clamp people anyway. It is a matter for the car park owners."

Raymond Goldstone, President of Blackburn Chamber of Trade, said: "I think it is a bit harsh. clamping will only cause a lot of misunderstanding and aggravation among the general public. The companies who are starting enforcing clamping will get a bad name and people will be discouraged from shopping here.

"We need to look at finding a parking place for people who work in the town centre, maybe on the outskirts of town.

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