Car clamping finds favour

Government agents who wheelclamped hundreds of old bangers under a scheme designed to prevent road-tax dodging may have done their owners a favour, a minister admitted last night.

More than 200 of the 400 cars clamped and taken to a car pound under the three-month programme in London last year were never claimed because they were worth less than the cost of paying a pounds 68 fine plus the need to pay the road fund licence, take out insurance and pass the MOT, Sir George Young, the Secretary of State for Transport, revealed to a House of Commons' select committee. But, despite the hiccups, he said that tenders were being sought for a national programme from next April. Fran Abrams