The Royal Automobile Club Foundation has welcomed the news that the Government at last looks set to tighten the regulations on ‘cowboy clampers’. Responding to the Home Secretary’s move to consult on toughening regulations on wheel clamping firms, the director of the RAC Foundation Professor Stephen Glaister said: “After more than a decade of campaigning on behalf of irritated car owners, the RAC Foundation is heartened to see that at last the Government is taking seriously the huge problem of ‘cowboy clampers’, a problem we hear about on an almost daily basis from distressed motorists who contact us for advice.”

“We are pleased to see the Government is looking at almost every area of concern we have about private clamping. We would also urge the Home Secretary to make it illegal for clamping firms to charge motorists on private property any more than they would pay in penalties on the public highway for similar infringements”.

Figures show there is a predicted downturn in the number of new vehicles being registered. At the end of 2008 there were a total of 34.2 million licensed vehicles registered in Great Britain. This is an increase of almost 250 thousand vehicles on the number licensed at the end of 2007 but is less than half the increase seen in the previous year and the lowest year on year growth since 1995. Licensed motorcycles increased by 2.2 percent over the year, while the number of licensed heavy goods vehicles reduced by 1.7 percent. There were 2.7 million vehicles registered for the first time in Great Britain in 2008. This is a drop of over 300 thousand vehicle registrations, or 10.8 percent, from the previous year and represents the lowest number of new registrations since 1997. The proportion of cars and light goods vehicles powered by diesel also continues to grow. A quarter of all licensed cars in Great Britain in 2008 were diesel, twice the proportion from 10 years previous, while 43 percent of cars registered for the first time in 2008 were also fuelled by diesel.  The average age of the vehicle stock also continues to grow. In 2008, cars   licensed in Great Britain had been registered for an average of 7 years each.   In 2007, however, the average car was registered for 6.8 years while in 2003  the average stood at 6.6 years.

Westminster’s mobile road cameras have had to be switched off as The Department for Transport enforcement branch, the Vehicle Certification Agency, ruled that they “do not fully meet the resolution standards required”. Images from the £15m traffic cameras use digital technology and transmit these by Wi-Fi. The required standard of resolution is set out in the rules under the Traffic Management Act, which came into force on 1 April 2009. Legislation states traffic cameras must be capable of recording at 720 x 576 pixels. Those in question are 704 x 576 pixels. Parking CCTV is primarily used for moving traffic violations such as banned u-turns and stopping on box junctions.

New powers come into force on April 1 with a ‘go live’ date of  May 28 which will see VOSA officers begin to issue fixed penalties for offences committed by drivers at the time of roadside enforcement checks. The power to vary the number of penalty points endorsed on driving licences according to type, location, severity of offence and location of offence will mean that VOSA will consider further action, such as a warning letter, further investigation or referral to a Traffic Commissioner who may consider taking action against the driver’s vocational entitlement, such as an LGV licence. VOSA will maintain a driver offence record of fixed penalties issued, where a driver will incur points based on the graduated fixed penalty band.

A new system of driving licence endorsement will mean power to issue endorse able fixed penalties to non-GB driving licence holders through checks of their ‘driving record’. Police and VOSA will also have the power to require financial deposit payment by drivers without a satisfactory UK address (intended to enforce against foreign drivers who otherwise have been able to avoid fixed penalty/ prosecution in the UK) as well as powers to immobilise vehicles subject to a prohibition (again, primarily directed at foreign drivers). This may include drivers from the European Union employed by UK companies who have not yet registered with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to obtain a counterpart driving licence. The PCO recently issued a PCO Notice dealing with this.

The Notice states that to be licensed as a taxi or PHV driver, an applicant must hold a full driving licence issued in the UK, the European Community (EC) or one of the other countries in the European Economic Area (EEA). From 1st April 2009 the Licensing Authority requires all taxi (and PHV drivers) who hold a EC/EEA driving licence to have a GB counterpart document. By having a GB counterpart drivers can take part in the fixed penalty system for road traffic offences instead of attending court. In order to obtain a UK counterpart, the applicant must be resident in the UK. Any driver who is unable to satisfy this requirement may be licensed on condition that a UK counterpart is obtained within 3 months of the licence being issued.