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Rogue car clampers are a real menace. Hardly a week goes by without a constituent complaining that they’ve been forced to pay £ hundreds for momentarily pulling onto a bit of pavement outside an empty shop. 

It’s also driving trade out of towns like Clacton. Pensioners stung with big bills, and confronted by foul-mouthed thugs, are hardly likely to shop in town again.

Something needs to be done. But what?

One idea would be to regulate those permitted to wheel clamp - and the fees they charge. But something tells me that putting an IPSA-type quango in charge is never an effective solution to anything.

Another proposal is a blanket ban on clamping vehicles on private land. It’s been suggested that this form part of the Freedom Bill.  A Freedom Bill that bans things is a novel idea, but not one that I’m sure is going to be 100% effective. I imagine that the thugs that extort money at present would be perfectly capable of doing so with a ticketing system that permitted them to demand payment, without actually having to use clamps. 

The heart of the problem is caused by the legal right of the cowboy clampers to demand payment, rather than the physical use of clamps. Ending this form of extortion means addressing the fact that the cowboy clampers are only able to extort money because the private landowner has signed a contract permitting them to do so.  

Unless one is proposing to ban the right of landowners to charge payment, why not allow those who have had vast sums taken off them (sometimes by extortion and threats) sue the landowner?

If we lived in a society where ordinary folk, rather than just the rich and the reckless, had access to justice in the courts, I imagine a private landowner that allowed cowboy clampers would soon find themselves of the receiving end of a writ. Unless a landowner had a specific and persistent problem with people parking on their land, they’d not want to sign a contract with a cowboy clamper without thinking through the potential liabilities very carefully – especially if threatening and aggressive behaviour were involved. After a couple of court cases, I imagine the problem would disappear.

Giving ordinary folk access to justice in the courts? Now that really is a radical idea for the Coalition to ponder. And it’d solve more than just the problem of unscrupulous car clampers ....