The vast majority of motorists park honestly and legally, perfectly happy to pay if there is no free parking available for the convenience of being able to leave their vehicles close to where they want to be. A few do try to fiddle the system by deliberately staying beyond the time they've paid for, but most play it by the rules.

Those people who do get caught for parking over their allotted time usually have either made a genuine mistake or have been delayed by circumstances beyond their control. Local authority car parks and the big commercial operators understand this and are prepared to allow some latitude, if only because by showing goodwill they encourage return custom.

However, goodwill is something the over-enthusiastic Haworth clampers seem not to understand. Today we report yet another story of the effects of their zeal, with a Bradford family suffering distress as a result of their dogmatic clamping policy which led to a minibus carrying children with learning difficulties being immobilised - not for overstaying on this occasion, but for parking across two bays to allow the children plenty of room to get out and in.

The car-park owners are technically within their rights to take this action. But their policy continues to create a poor image for Haworth and must be responsible for keeping away visitors who have either experienced clamping there or heard reports of it.

There are two options for the future. Either the car-park owners need to be encouraged to act more sympathetically for the good of the whole village or the Council must look at ways of providing more local-authority parking as an alternative.