A CLAMPING company has been sacked by pub bosses after a series of "upsetting" incidents and complaints.

Third Pub Estate Company employed Pendle Clamping to patrol the car park outside the Moorings pub in Bolton Road, Blackburn, after non-customers began clogging up spaces with their vehicles.

But the pub company dismissed the firm after claiming its vigorous clamping policy began "getting silly."

The "last straw" came when a delivery driver complained that he was clamped after parking in the car park for less than a minute while he asked directions at a nearby burger van.

He claimed he was escorted to the bank by two men and had to hand over £60 before his vehicle was released, even though he had used the car park at 10am, before the pub was opened for the day.

Alan Collinge, owner of Burnley-based Rainbow International carpet dyeing and cleaning company, claimed the driver involved was a new employee who feared for his job because he had been clamped.

He said the driver was never out of sight of the vehicle and within shouting distance when the clamping took place.

John Lengthorn, the Third Pub Estate Company's area manager, said: "We have dismissed Pendle Clamping.

"This incident was the last straw and we sent them a letter thanking them for their services and telling them they were no longer required. "We originally employed the company some time ago for the obvious reason that our customers couldn't get on the car park.

"But they started getting silly and upsetting our customers."

Peter Bailey of Pendle Clamping said: "On this occasion we arrived and saw the van on the car park. Before clamping the vehicle we checked to see if the driver was in the pub.

"It was only when we discovered that there was nobody in the pub that we went back to his vehicle and fitted a clamp, which takes longer than a minute.

"We had to open the door of our vehicle and get the clamp out, which makes a lot of noise, fit the clamp and put the details in our log book.

"This would be impossible to do without somebody's attention being drawn to what was going on.

"If the driver had come back while this process was being carried out then the clamp wouldn't have been fitted and he would have simply been warned.

"We were employed by Trust Inns, who later became the Third Pub Company, about 18 months ago to control unauthorised parking on the Moorings car park.

"From the first day the manager was anti-clamping and was looking for an excuse to get rid of us."

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