News

An owner-driver has blasted the actions of clampers at Lymm services after a heavy haulage vehicle was targeted only after the driver had left his cab and entered the service station. Norman Stothard says he witnessed the clamper watching from his van until the driver of the Bennetts' 70-foot low loader had parked in a coach bay due to lack of room and walked 50-feet to the toilets before swooping on the vehicle.

When the driver returned, Stothard and another witness confronted the clamper:  "He admitted it," says Stothard. "I was livid and it wasn't even my truck that was clamped. He was only stopping for a leak. Because of the size of the vehicle, there was nowhere else for him to park." A spokesman for Wilmslow-based Bennetts confirms that one of their vehicles was clamped and says the matter may be taken further.

However, a spokesman for Moto Hospitality, which runs the M6 services, agrees that the vehicle was "clamped unfairly". He adds: "Although the clampers do not work directly for Moto Hospitality, we would expect everybody who acts on our behalf, as an agent or a representative, to conduct themselves in a manner which reflects favourably on our business. We will be speaking to Parking Eye - the company which manages all parking at Lymm and by whom the clampers are sub-contracted - to ensure there will be no repetition of this incident."