Cllr Barry Anderson passed on some important information he had received from a local resident who published the following information:

“Be Aware of Clampers down your street!!!!

This morning (Tuesday 21 April ’15) in Smithy Lane, Cookridge, Leeds 16 there was a white transit van driven by a man with a woman passenger. The van has some sort of small camera device on the roof.  There is some small writing on the doors, but these details were not taken.

They were seen fitting a WHEEL CLAMP to a vehicle on that street.

When asked what they were doing, the woman said that they were clamping all vehicles without road tax.

It would appear that now vehicles do not have to display a current road tax that people are trying to avoid paying for it as there is no visual sign that they have in fact paid.

It appears that the Local Council are aware from DVLC records of which cars are not taxed etc, and they visit the address of the untaxed vehicle and put a wheel clamp on it. They also affix some sort of notice to the windscreen.

So, apart from having to pay for the wheel clamp to be removed, they will have to tax their vehicle before it is so removed. They might also have to pay a Fixed Penalty for having the untaxed vehicle on the road, plus other ancillary offences like no insurance and MOT.

 Please be aware, and inform your friends of the above. 

You might save someone a lot of money.”

As a result of this I received an email from another resident asking if this is correct and did the Council have these powers.

Cllr Barry Anderson took this up with the Chief Highways Officer and he has advised me as follows:

“We have made enquiries with our Parking Manager who advised the clamping would either be the DLVA or their contractors as they have statutory powers to clamp/remove untaxed vehicles. Occasionally, his team does clamp/remove persistent offenders with multiple tickets and no registered keeper which they have powers to do.

I hope this assists with your query.”

I trust this gives you the information you may need if you see this in your locality.

Adel Crag added: Please feel free to share this with your friends on Facebook.