91Èȱ¬

When he parked his car off-road in Cardiff Bay, Mike Fudge knew he was taking a risk. He could see the sign "Warning. Private Property. 24-hour vehicle immobilisation".

But when he returned to find that his car had been clamped and a truck already summonsed to tow it away, he was taken aback by the size of the financial penalty he faced.

"I might have expected a penalty of some sort - but £225 is extortionate. If it had been imposed by a traffic warden it would probably have been a £35, £60 fixed penalty fee."

Susan Stephens felt similarly hard done by after purchasing a ticket after visiting a car park - as husband Richard explains.

"She paid and displayed. But by the time they got back to the car they noticed it had been clamped."

"It turned out the ticket hasn't got a sticky side to it and it had inadvertently slipped down between the dashboard and the windscreen."

That mishap cost the Stephens a £90 release fee. They later retrieved the ticket and wrote a letter of appeal. But their hopes of a satisfactory response went unfulfilled.

"We were very annoyed with the response because it didn't really cover any of the issues that we raised or the personal circumstances surrounding our clamping."

"It didn't tell us how to take the matter further or whether there was an arbitrator or ombudsman who we could take the matter to. We felt very much at a loss, we'd sent the appeal in and there were no further avenues to explore at the time."

Complaints like those have led the 91Èȱ¬ Office to consult on new legislation to regulate further the activities of car clampers.

The results of that exercise are expected to be unveiled in this week's Queen's Speech as part of a new Police Crime and Private Security Bill.

Under the new law, wheel clamp companies will have to abide by a code of practice setting out release fees, size of signs and appeals procedures.

91Èȱ¬ Office minister Alan Campbell says that landowners need to be able to deter motorists who abuse private land and that the new legislation is about finding a balance.

"That's why we are allowing clamping to continue - but under very strict circumstances to drive out some of the practices that exist now."

"The law will establish a code of practice. Businesses will need to be licensed through the Security Industries Authority - as individual clampers are now."

"That means having rules about things like signage, about charging, about the time that elapses before your vehicle is towed away."

"And if they break that code of practice and if they do continue with cowboy practices then they risk losing their licence."

But there are doubts that the new system of regulation make a real difference. The British Parking Association's code of practice is set to become the industry standard.

It already allows companies to charge up to £125 for releasing clamped cars and £250 for towing them away, so the controversy around wheel clamping is unlikely to go away soon.