MOTORISTS in Whitefield can rest easy after a clamping company relaxed its grip on the Brand Centre car park.

As reported in the Guide drivers complained that MGB Clamping Company Ltd was causing havoc after imposing £85 fines on cars parked on the closed shopping centre's land.

But the company has withdrawn from the area and said there would be no more clamping for the foreseeable future.

The move comes after questions were raised over who were the legal owners of the land.

The clamping company said it held a contract with the Brand Centre itself but it has emerged that the actual land owners are Safeway, who occupied the site prior to the Brand Centre, and commercial agents Rapleys who represent Safeway stores throughout the country.

When contacted by the Bury Times, a spokesman for Rapleys, Mr Chris Moore, said: "We have no knowledge of this company and we would not wish to inconvenience the residents of Whitefield in this way."

Mr Moore said he had contaced MGM and was told they had stopped clamping on the land.

Office manager for MGB, Christina Wells, said: "Our contract was with the Brand Centre and now it is closed the land has reverted back to the original owners. It did not do this immediately and in that time we were instructed to clamp on there. As the situation stands our contract is now null and void and we have not clamped anyone since Friday."