The owner of a Haworth car park has hit out at tourism officials who say his wheel-clamping is turning tourists away from the village.

Ted Evans believes his clamping methods are not turning people away and says his car park has been busier than ever recently, even during the wet weather.

Speaking at Tuesday night's Keighley and Haworth Tourism Management Group meeting, Mr Evans also hit out at what he saw as a personal attack on his methods at the last meeting in September, reported in the Keighley News.

He said: "The motion at the last meeting (supporting MP Ann Cryer in her call for wheel-clamping to be restricted) was put forward on a very misleading premise.

"During that meeting Cllr Young only discussed the problems on the Haworth car parks. No other car parks were mentioned.

"I think it is immoral that this group condemns people and yet offers no sensible suggestions or alternatives to wheel-clamping to stop people cheating. If people have a better sol-ution we will take it on board. I don't want this meeting to be a battle against Ted Evans.

"We were heavily criticised regarding disabled parking and yet you know you are wrong. We comply with the rules of the orange badge, the first of which says that an orange disabled badge doesn't give you a license to park anywhere."

Car owners who are clamped on Mr Evans' Changegate car park for not paying for their parking have to pay £25 to have their vehicles released.

Cllr Mike Young told the meeting he has received 20 letters of complaint about the clamping from people who have visited the village.

He said: "I am elected to represent Worth Valley and I take this situation very seriously because tourism brings a lot of money into the district. I have received 20 letters with a common theme, and I fear that Haworth will get an unwelcome reputation as an unwelcoming place to visit.

"None of the 20 people who wrote to me have said they want to come back again, so you can't ignore that."

The row flared at the group's September meeting when it was claimed Mr Evans' vehicle clamping was turning visitors away from the village. Members supported Cllr Young's call to support Keigh-ley MP Ann Cryer's attempt to introduce legislation placing tougher controls on wheel clamping.

A letter of support was sent to Mrs Cryer on behalf of the tourism group by chairman Jackie Cope. She said: "The letter doesn't refer to Haworth wheel clamping in any shape or form. I think we have to remember that this group came together to try to support tourism in Keighley and Haworth and encourage good practice.'

Mrs Cryer has voiced her concern about the cowboy operators in the industry, and believes that good companies will not fear any new legislation.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.