Clampers in gift to birthday boy
Tuesday 15th September 2009, 1:12PM BST.
David Evans opens his presents and "celebrates" his 54th birthday protesting in his clamped Commer camper van at Pool Rise, Springfield, Shrewsbury.
A 54-year-old Shrewsbury man was today spending his birthday in his camper van to stop it being towed away by clampers.
David Evans, of Pool Rise, discovered his van – which is parked on his driveway – had been clamped when he returned home yesterday.
Today he was spending his birthday in the van after being warned it would be taken away within 24 hours.
He arrived home yesterday to discover a notice from the DVLA on the van’s windscreen.
He said: “They’re saying part of my drive is the highway and that nobody owns their own drive.
“I’ve lived here 30 years and always parked here. My van is tax-exempt because it was built in 1973. I’m going to stay here because they can’t move it with me in it.”
Other residents were equally shocked when DVLA officers turned out to clamp cars. At least six cars have been clamped and issued with release fees of up to £260.
Many of those living on the street had paid the former Shropshire County Council to have the patches of land leading up to their homes paved up to 10 years ago and so believed they had taken ownership of the land.
Nobody from the DVLA was available for comment today.
Adie George, 41, has lived on Pool Rise for over 20 years. He gave a friend permission to park her car, which had a Statutory Off Road Notification, on what he believed was his drive.
Mr George said: “The car has been reported as off road and so does not require any road tax.
“The police came out back in about March and said the car has to be parked off the road so ‘put it on your drive’.
“The council offered us the drives years ago if we paid to have them done. They sent us the bill from the contractors when they did it.
“Everyone around here thinks they own their drive.”
Jon Tandy, Shropshire Council ward member for the area, said he would be writing to the DVLA to ask them to clarify where drives were considered part of the highway in Shropshire.
The move follows a similar spate of clampings in Field Crescent, Harlescott, earlier this year when residents who paid a regular maintenance charge to Severnside Housing association also had cars, which they believed were parked on private driveways, hit with fines.
Councillor Tandy said: “What they have done is targeted the houses of people who don’t realise their car parking area is the highway.”
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If it is on his property why was it clamped?
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Perhaps he should save his birthday money and pay to comply with the law like the rest of us then
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Why’s he hiding, or should I say what has he got to hide, the vehicles been clamped and can’t be moved. It seems that the DVLA have carried out their legal responsibilities because the picture does not tell us anything except that he is somewhere there is a bit of hardcore on the ground with what appears to be grass growing through it, knowing how particular the DVLA are about getting things right I suspect he’s fallen foul like the Harlescott mob a few weeks ago.
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It isn’t parked on his property.
It is parked on the tarmac leading to his driveway, between the road and the pavement.
This still forms part of the highway, and so the vehicle needs to be taxed and insured.
There are two similarly parked vehicles within about 100 yards that have also been clamped.
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If it has really been clamped whilst on his private property then he has the right to remove the clamp taking reasonable care to limit the damage to the clamp.
I suspect however that the vehicle has been clamped becuase it is not on private property but on public land, and is either not taxed, MOT’d or insured for use on the road, and not declared SORN either.
If so, and the DVLA has clamped it, we should all applaud them for their diligence.
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If a vehicle is tax excempt why clamp it.You seem to now everything IAN so why dont you go round and give him your ADVICE.
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Pickle, you have got yourself in a right one!
This is a straight lift from the DVLA website http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/TaxationClasses/DG_4022042
Old vehicles constructed before 1 January 1973 (historic vehicles)If your vehicle was constructed before 1 January 1973, you could tax it in the ‘historic vehicle’ tax class. Further information can be found on leaflet INF34
The words you need to focus on are CONSTRUCTED BEFORE not “My van is tax-exempt because it was BUILT IN 1973″
Must try harder B-
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Well said Ian. I wish,just wish for once people would do their homework before opening their mouths or putting pen to paper. Also the councillor is talking a load of hogwash, these people have been targeted because they are breaking the law it is not some sort of class or political war,I pay my way I expect others to do so too.Don’t forget councillor without our taxes you have no expenses!!!!!!!!!
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Knowing the gentlman concerned, and, as my Son’s vehicle was also targeted and this morning removed, you all seem to be missing the point. People living in Pool Rise genuinely thought that the driveways belonged to their property, some havng paid for these themselves. Therefore any vehicle parked on these drives are off-road as detailed by the DVLA Leaflets left on the vehicles. My Sons vehicle was SORN.
This is a very grey area and one that needs addressing however no-one from the Highways Dept. have been to the properties concerned and Severnside Housing have advised they want nothing to do with the problems that have arisen. So who will answer the question?
Like so many others who live in this area, why not keep your mouths shut unless you are fully aware of the situation so we dont have to listen or read any of your nonsense.
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Even if a vehicle is exempt from the fee due to its age, it still needs to display a valid tax disc, and in order to obtain said tax disc it must have a valid MOT and insurance.
It’s a common misconception that ‘tax-exempt’ vehicles don’t need a disc, but they do.
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why does every gov dept see themselves as some sort of gestapo.what happened to a friendly or even unfriendly warning rather than a dawn raid.
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It’s not the job of the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency (who deal with drivers and vehicles) to clarify what is private land or not. Shouldn’t Mr Tandy from the Council be looking a bit closer to home for that information?
If you think you’re responsible enough to own a vehicle, you should be responsible enough to abide by the laws regarding it. Ignorance of the law is no defence.
How do these people think the clampers end up their area? It’s not pot-luck. Some law-abiding person has reported them because they got so fed up of seeing unlicensed vehicles cluttering up the pavements!
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I think this is one big joke. If the drive is council property why hasn’t the useless council re- paved the drive? Because its not theres? or is it? If the drive is part of the highway then i can park any where then Ian? (like on your drive) then you cant do anything. Is that correct?
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How can u get a mot on vehicle when u r doing it up. ??? Please explain u dvla experts !!!
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If the drive is part of the highway why hasn’t the (useless) council re-paved it Ian? If the drives are part of the highway then i can park anywhere on anybodys drive ie your drive Ian? cuz you wouldn’t be able to do anything because i would be parking legally then? So my point is, is the drive the councils or the homeowner? If it is the councils then they should re-pave the drive OR AM I WRONG?
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Here’s a radical idea – how about checking the Deeds to the property, they will indicate where the boundary of your property is (i.e where your driveway ends and the public highway begins)- simples, no??
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It is the job of DVLA to clarify what is private land or not.Otherwise their wouldn’t be different types of road tax ie.SORN and the usual Road Tax.That’s what this whole argument is about.
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The ‘useless council’ can’t repave it if everyone parks on it.
And if you parked on someone’s private driveway without their permission you’d be trespassing (also against the law). The driveway is on the deeds to your house. If it’s not on the deeds it ain’t yours. The piece of land where these vehicles were parked isn’t a driveway – it’s access to a driveway. Not the same thing. It’s honest tax payers who pay for the maintainance of it, not the person who lives in the house infront of it.
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And the point is to keep the vehicle on private land while you do it up…you don’t need an MOT for that!
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My issue here is that all of these people have sorn documents and believed that they had already taken them off the highway by putting them on the parking area leading to the house. They thought that the area was owned by Severnside housing and when I spoke to Severnside yesterday they thought the same. It is only now that it has become apparent that it is Highway land.
The DVLA are targeting areas that they know the residents will think that they are on their own driveway and abiding by the law.
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At last some people are starting to realise that this protest is not about the vehicles but a discrepancy on the land they are parked on. Rightly the residents, some private and some under Severnside, believed that if they paid for a drive to be installed, it is their own private drive. It now appears this not to be the case and yes, there should have been prior consultation to remedy this prior to clampers entering on to the drives to clamp vehicles.
Lets be clear, these Officers are not from the DVLA, merely sub-contractors working on their behalf and they have limited knowledge of what is the law or not.
My Sons vehicle, which has now been towed, was put on the drive on the advice of the Police and SORN on the advice of the Police. So who now upholds the law, the Police or agents of DVLA?
What is disappointing is that no statement from either the Highways Department or Severnside has been made available to residents regarding the dispute over the driveways. Bearing in mind the DVLA say these are Council owned, I would be asking them to maintain these to good repair without any hesitation.
So beware all residents of Pool Rise who are fortunate to have a drive, that as we own 3 further vehicles, and struggle at time to park on the steet, that we can now park on your drive and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Imagine this happening!!!
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Wagon,
If ‘u r doing up’ a vehicle, then it shouldn’t be parked on publicly-owned property unless it has tax, MOT and insurance – that’s the law.
Nelly,
Yes, you are wrong…
The situation regarding the drive being private or public property can be easily resolved by reference to the deeds to the house if privately owned or by reference to the correct owner/authority if rented.
If the area upon which the van is parked is council-owned, there’s no obligation to re-pave or resurface unless the current surface is in some way hazardous. Whether it is well-maintained or not is no indication of ownership!
You have no ‘right’ to park on any part of the highway. It is tolerated (for taxed and insured vehicles only) provided that such parking doesn’t cause an obstruction, which I suggest parking on the pavement on the approach to someone else’s drive might be felt to cause…
The DVLA aren’t concerned over parking on the pavement – but they are concerned about vehicles parked on the public highway(whether that’s pavement or road) without tax, because the rest of us pay our tax and insurance, and keep our vehicles MOTs current!
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I understand thats the law but if your led to believe for 30 years that you own the drive then maybe u an see our point !!!!
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Calm down all. Aint you all happy campers?!!!!!!
Well for your info the drive is in a state i have seen it and also the law is the law i agree with that.
HAPPY CLAMPING oh sorry HAPPY CAMPING.The colour brown springs to mind!!!
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I’m not too sure but I was led to believe that it is an offence to ‘do up’ a vehicle on the highway, so they’re rather lucky the local police don’t know their aliums.
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SORN isn’t a road tax John – it’s free!! The DVLA get their information about the status of land from the council. Why don’t these people just take some responsibility for being ignorant?
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Karen, whilst I appreciate your concerns that your son and others are going to end up with a mega bill, you obviously feel that your son and others have been hard down by,here is a simple explanation to the question.What is a public highway?
It is a way that all members of the public have a right of passage over. A vehicular highway consists of a carriageway, footways (if any) and verges.The pictures seem to be very clear. I tax my vehicles in order to keep them on the road, I expect others to show similar responsibility.
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Ref #21,when it comes to ‘taxation’ of vehicles the prosecuting authority is the DVLA not the police, the police merely submit reports to the DVLA as witnesses.
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@Liz
Oooooh!
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Let us be reminded that ignorance is no defence in law and I wonder whether Cllr Tandy would be quite so tolerant if everybody didn’t pay their council tax, because we thought we had and didn’t know?
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COMING SOON TO A STREET NEAR YOU THE CLAMPERS.
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I have five useful pieces of advice to these people ——-
Pay
Up
And
Shut
Up
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