Star’s front row seat for sporting history
- Local newspaper week
Driver fury at clamping
Wednesday 29th July 2009, 2:10PM BST.
Susan Donaldson, from Field Crescent, Harlescott, Shrewsbury with her DVLA clamped car.
Furious Shropshire residents today claimed their cars had been clamped by the DVLA during a blitz on illegal parking despite being declared legally off the road and parked away from the highway.
Up to 12 vehicles are believed to have been clamped during the crackdown in the Harlescott area of Shrewsbury, with residents forced to pay £260 to get their cars released.
Susan Donaldson, of Field Crescent, said her Vauxhall Corsa had been clamped on Monday on a concrete area off the road but still classed as the highway.
The 27-year-old said her vehicle had been clamped despite her being in possession of a SORN – a statutory off-road notification.
Miss Donaldson, who lives with partner Tony O’Gorman and their two children, said she believed she had the right to leave her car parked on the concrete area as the family pays about £110 a year in service charges to Severnside Housing for its maintenance and upkeep.
Housing bosses today vowed to visit Miss Donaldson to “reassess” the situation.
Miss Donaldson said: “Severnside are telling me that I have no rights to this land even though I pay £2 a week for the upkeep of it. I have been paying it for three years. The DVLA came round on Monday but the car has been declared SORN and it’s off the road so I don’t understand.”
Another Harlescott resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said he had been threatened with a fine by the DVLA after removing the clamp on his vehicle. And a resident of Field Crescent said he will let the DVLA confiscate his vehicle, which has no engine inside, saying it was not worth paying to get it back.
A DVLA spokesman said: “Our wheel clamping contractor established that the area on which some of the clamped vehicles were parked were maintained at public expense and therefore it’s not part of an individual’s property.”
Peter Donovan for Severnside Housing, said: “Severnside is arranging for a housing officer to visit the property and reassess the situation.
“However, it is the vehicle keeper’s responsibility to make sure that their vehicle complies with vehicle tax legislation at all times, whether parked on or off the road.”
By Russell Roberts
Sponsored Links
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
LIVE traffic updates
Road, rail and airport - latest
Our new, live traffic and travel updates service - check before you set out.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
The definition of a highway in the eyes of the law are from verge to verge, perhaps this could answer their actions.
Report abuse
If it’s parked on the highway, even if it’s declared SORN, it’s parked on the public road and needs to be taxed – end of story.
Tough!
Report abuse
Well its about time if its not taxed then get it off the road.Well done DVLA lets see more untaxed vehicles clamped.
Report abuse
It is NOT clear from the article whether the vehicles were clamped becuase they were incorrectly postioned in relation to a SORN, or..
Whether they were illegally or incorectly parked.
IF it is a SORN offence, then in my opinion that can be dealt with by normmal means, ie a fine sent through the post.
If it’s a PARKING offence, then that applies equally to vehicles that are taxed, or declared SORN. – So which is it?
This smacks of a high handed operation by DVLA
Report abuse
askeric dotcom
DVLA are in this area clamping vehicles that are untaxed and parked on the highway if they are declared SORN they should not be parked on the highway> like I said if its not taxed GET it of the road why should people who are legal find it difficult to park if the roads are cluttered with untaxed cars.
Report abuse
Cost of 6mths tax must surely be a hell of a lot cheaper than paying a £260 fine to get the clamp removed…I know which I would have paid.
Report abuse
Clamping cars that have a SORN applied? That seems strange, it’s not as if the cars are about to be driven anywhere.
Report abuse
Time to get some facts right please Shropshire Star. Since when have the DVLA been involved prosecuting parking offences? This incident isn’t about parking and there have been enough adverts on TV and radio about what will happen to your car when it is parked on the highway without a valid vehicle excise licence, so no excuse there. The lady in the article may have filled out a sorn notice but the car is on the highway so it needs tax. It may not be being used but if you park it anywhere on a public area near a road chances are it will need tax. So either way, pay up, get it taxed or get it moved onto your driveway. It may be inconvenient but there are thousands of us out there who do pay our excise duty each year albeit rather begrudgingly.
Report abuse
This is really simple to resolve….. I hope you are all ready for this!?!?
Park your cars legally!!!!!!
I know… shocking isnt it!
Would you complain if you stole something from your local shop and then got prosecuted?
We keep hearing stupid stories like this. I have in my life recieved numerous parking tickets… every time it has been my fault! Pay and display ticket ran out etc. I have noone to blame and noone to complain to…. because it was my fault!
Please stop being stupid and park legally!
Report abuse
It’s pretty obvious really – Any vehicle with a SORN declaration must be kept on private land, so how could Susan Donaldson think she would be outside this rule?
Report abuse
Of course, it’s the car owner’s responsibility to find out what’s meant by “highway”, but that isn’t clear to everybody.
Rather than clamping, perhaps a letter to each vehicle owner, explaining that their car is on the public highway, would have done the trick, with a warning that clamping would follow in a fortnight if the vehicle was still there.
Oh wait – silly me – that would look too much like a public *service* and it doesn’t raise any revenue!
Report abuse
So I’ll ask again,
(bearing in mind the article states):
“clamped by the DVLA during a parking blitz ”
Were ALL these clamped vehicles subject to a “Statutory Off Road Notice” (SORN)? that is, Were they in fact UNTAXED, and thus declared SORN?.. or …
Were SOME of the vehicles untaxed, but not SORN, and were the remainder of the vehicles just illegally parked?
Which combination(s) was it?
IF the vehicles WERE indeed untaxed, then that is NOT a parking offence, and in any case should have been declared SORN, and MUST be removed from “the highway” …. however,
Question is…
Where is the Highway??
Are we being led to believe that the vehicles were indeed “off road” – but not neccessarily totally within private land?
Seems like we need more precise information here, becuase, ….. how many people might declare their vehicle as SORN, and then think that it’s OK if it’s not actually parked “in the road”? – would you think it fair that under those circumstances that you’d get clamped without warning .. on what seems like a private housing estate??
Is that REALLY going to promote good relations?
Report abuse
I AM ABOVE THE LAW!!!
Report abuse
tax it or grush, it u cannot pay car tax then you shouldnt have a car simple
Report abuse
Lok! iv u wnt 2 prk bi yr house wt if its gt 2 do wiv DLVA espclly if its nt on the strt!! TXA IT!!SMPIL AS THT!! ;-) ^/^
Report abuse
Apologies all. I was taking the micky, I didn’t think the moderator would let it pass! I blame it all on Noddy Holder.
Report abuse
The key here, is what is and wht isn’t the public highway. In fact the ground infront of a shop may be private, but if say its slabbed and people regularly pass over it, it will form the public highway, albeit still private land and you could not leave a SORNed car on it. However, if the frontage was rubble that people generally avoided walking over, it would not form the highway, so you SORNed car would be safe.
I do not know the area in this article, but the question is not whether it is publicly r privately owned or maintained, but is it normally used by the public to pass over as a highway?
If this concrete area is merely a private car park that the general public do not pass over, then this clamping is unlawful.
Report abuse
To clarify, the Local Highway Authority in this case Shropshire Council should have comprehensive records of the extent and boundaries of all highways within the county. These will be to a fairly detailed level particularily in urban locations, although rural records can be open to a degree of interpretation. To note, a public highway is not necessarily council land, in many cases the land is actually private but the council has adopted the surface in order to provide public passage over it. The title deeds of your house for example may extend to the centre line of your adjacent street but the footway, verge and roadway on the surface of this land is adopted by the council to allow the public to use it. Highway rights always take presidence.
A legal process has to take place via the Highways Act 1980 before an area can be classified as highway. If people just walk across a bit of private land regularily this does not automatically make it highway at all. If public passage accross it is not secured by the council as adopted highway you would technically be tresspassing unless you have a personal agreement with the landowner or it is a public right of way which is technically different to a highway and is a another can of worms.
Report abuse
A simple warning notice would have been sufficient here, but alas there would be no money generated from such kindness or the use of common sense would there?
Report abuse
MSR: An interesting example of how private land becomes the Highway without official adoption by the relevant authority. I do not have the name of the case to hand, but this it how it goes.
A man parked his moped on a 50cm wide strip on concrete between the slabbed pavement and a building, rightly believing that this was private land. He subsequently got a parking ticket for illegally parking on the highway (there was a parking restriction in the street).
He appealed and the appeal ruled that because this strip of concrete was regularly passed over by the general public as a byway, it did in fact form the Highway in law. However, the appeal recommended that in these circumstances, the defendant should be re-offered the original lower fine that could have been paid within 14 days, rather than the higher one incurred due to loosing his appeal.
From the picture on this thread, it looks like this area is in fact a private car park that residents and visitors use. Albeit the general public may have easy access to it, if it is not generally used by the public as a thorough fare, it is not the public highway, in the same way that Asda’s car parks do not become Highways.
Report abuse
cant do the time then dont do the crime !!
harlescott has plently of legal parking, its not like you live in the town centre or frankwell where there is a enuine problem with parking, there is no excuse!
Report abuse