Clamp fee to steep
A FEW days before Christmas my grandson, aged 16, a sixth-form student at a local school, went on his moped to visit his mother (he lives with his father).
He left his moped, a small 50cc model, up against the wall of the house in Sudley Terrace, Bognor High Street. When he came out of the house about 15 minutes later,
he found his moped had been clamped. He hadn’t seen the ‘No Parking’ notice nearby, which had apparently only been put up a week or two earlier.
He rang the number on the notice left on his bike and was told he would have to pay £125 to have it unclamped, otherwise it would be taken away and he’d have to pay £250 to retrieve it – or else it would be sold. He hadn’t got anything like that amount of money, he hadn’t got a credit or debit card, he knew his father couldn’t find that amount immediately, so he rang me and I was able to pay the sum with my credit card, (though I noticed on my bank statement I’d been charged £130). His moped was unclamped and he was able to ride home.
It seems to me £125 is an extremely disproportionate amount to pay for a fairly minor offence. The moped was in no way causing an obstruction to vehicles or pedestrians. I am very surprised the district council allows Capital 2 Coast to charge such large sums to unclamp a moped.
Richard Thomas
Brent Court,
Emsworth
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Weather for Bognor
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 20 C
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Wind direction: South east
Comments
There are 2 comments to this article
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SOG001
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 12:55 PMMmm- I have some sympathy here ref the fine value However I'm assuming the moped was parked on the pavement? - If so not very courteous to pedestrians - If not why did he get the fine in the first place ? My only practical observation is that he must have (presumably) done this many times before and that his mother might have already been aware of this possibility ?
Stephen Barr
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 10:52 AMIt's outrageous that a boy should be treated that way!
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