REGARDING your report "Extortion!" (LET, February 14), if Blackburn MP Jack Straw has nothing better to do than complain to Home Office ministers about a company carrying on its legitimate business of placing wheel clamps on vehicles that are parked on private land, then his duties to the people of Blackburn must be quite easy.

It is said that Pendle Clamping Company is controversial. The only thing that makes it controversial is the continuing sensationalism of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph. It has got a bee in its bonnet about a certain topic: it never lets go. I wonder if any of its staff, or their relatives, have been clamped in the past and begrudged paying the release fee.

Let's face it, if you park where you are not entitled to, you have to accept the consequences.

I suggest that the people who have been clamped in the past and wish to park for free should go and park on land owned by the Evening Telegraph.

But, wait, its car parks have signs warning that you will be clamped. So why is it such a big deal when other companies have clamping signs up?

Please note, I have no connection with Pendle Clamping or any other clamping company.

N KING (Mr), Hampden Avenue, Darwen.

FOOTNOTE: Far from having a "bee in our bonnet," we are merely reporting events and responding to readers' calls to us. I believed, and still do, that for an MP to raise this issue in Parliament merited front-page treatment. Any company, ours included, has the right to control its own private land. The issue with Pendle Clamping, raised by our readers, is the manner in which it goes about that business - Editor.

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