A CODE of practice to regulate wheel clamping in Skipton is being drawn up by the police.

While it is voluntary, the police hope that anyone who seeks to control parking on private land by wheel clamping will sign up and have the police's official seal of approval.

Insp Tad Nowakowski said the police had no authority to act if vehicles had been clamped on private land.

However, he said that he had been concerned at tactics used by some clampers.

"I have been involved in the past with some clamping companies which have people with horrendous criminal convictions," he said. "They have served time in prison and that is what I am trying to keep away from Skipton."

There is no suggestion of criminals being involved in any parking action in Craven or operators acting illegally.

The Craven Herald has been contacted by numerous motorists who had to pay up to £90 after leaving their vehicles behind the old post office in Swadford Street. Often the cars are only there minutes while the owners visit a nearby video store.

Insp Nowakowski said the police had also received complaints but were powerless to act.

He hopes that anyone carrying out wheel clamping will sign up to the code and will use an official warning poster, which carries the North Yorkshire Police logo. A similar scheme has been introduced in Harrogate.

"By setting a high standard, landowners will play a part in ensuring that only reputable and responsible companies are able to carry out parking controls," he said.

The code seeks to set a reasonable level for a release fee, which the police believe should be comparable with parking fines in Craven District Council's car parks - currently £60 (although the total is reduced to £35 if the fine is paid within seven days).

The code states that clamping should be to deter unauthorised parking, not for excessive financial gain.

Areas where clamping is in operation should be clearly identifiable with prominent signs and an unauthorised vehicle should be issued with a fixed penalty ticket first.

Clamping would be a last resort, used when a vehicle remained for more than four hours or to deter repeat offenders.

All reasonable methods of payment should be accepted, such as credit cards, to avoid motorists being escorted to a cash point.

The code also requires contractors to be in uniform or be easily identifiable and carry identity cards with their photograph.

"Hopefully this will work well for Skipton and other towns and bring some order to what is a national problem," said Insp Nowakowski.

"The next step is to get the landowners and traders to back the scheme and balance their legitimate rights to their private car parking space with their moral responsibility to the public."

He said he had spoken to one parking control company which indicated its willingness to sign up to the code.

The flaw in the scheme is that there is no legal requirement on any landowner to use a company which abides by the code.

"We cannot make the code compulsory but if we get any reports that people may not be behaving legally then we will ensure that they are investigated thoroughly and if there is any evidence of a criminal offence, we shall pursue our investigations," said Insp Nowakowski.