In a press release from City of Westminster, some astonishing news about clamping and towing cars: it's going to stop. Entirely. Completely. From today, only vehicles causing a serious obstruction in a disabled or suspended parking bay will be removed to a safer location and issued a parking ticket, with no extra charges for the removal costs. Wheel clamping has in fact been slowly phased out over the last two years but today that too will come to an end, meaning cars parked in problematic areas will be dealt with in far swifter fashion than, you know, weldng it to the spot with a big yellow manacle.

This fairly joined up thinking means the Park Lane car pound will no longer be used as a prison for cars but instead, all 280 spaces will become available for off-street parking. This is the result of the City of Westminster realising that clamping and removals of cars consistently causes more traffic and parking problems than are meant to solve, and is the first time any measures like this have been in the UK to shake -up parking control. Well done! We will watch and see how successful it will be...