Car parking bosses have today backed the Daily Echo campaign to crack down on former clamping firms now handing out tickets.

The British Parking Association (BPA) has backed calls to beef up regulations in a bid to stop former clampers using heavy-handed tactics as they switch to ticketing. This comes after the Daily Echo launched its Fair Deal for Drivers campaign, which calls for a clampdown on firms that are unfairly targeting drivers in Hampshire. The BPA, which has more than 150 members, said it is calling on the Department for Transport to make it compulsory for all parking firms to sign up to a national code of conduct. BPA chief executive Patrick Troy said: “The ban on clamping and towing away without lawful authority means it is still possible for so-called ‘rogue ticketers’ to operate throughout the UK, causing distress to motorists.

“We would like to see better regulation of the private parking sector than the coalition Government has offered.”

He also said that all parking firms should be forced to join the BPA. “Currently membership of the BPA, the industry’s professional body, is an ‘opt in’ system and this needs to change so that all motorists are treated fairly and there are legal repercussions for operators who decide not to sign up.”

But the BPA stepped back from backing a local authority-based system of licensing which has been called for by the AA, Southampton Itchen MP John Denham and city council leader Richard Williams. As previously reported, private operators are back in business following the ban on clamping – this time handing out parking tickets and threatening motorists with bailiffs.

This comes after the law changed on October 1, with the Protection of Freedom Act making clamping on private land illegal. But it did allow the former clamping firms to ticket drivers for “parking charges” and pursue drivers using DVLA data.

The Daily Echo Fair Deal for Drivers campaign was launched after the paper was contacted by angry drivers targeted by parking firms which threaten bailiffs and damage to their financial reputation if they do not pay “parking charges”.