THE car clamping “racket” is coming to an end in Bournemouth and around the country on October 1.

Victims of clampers and a Dorset MP have welcomed the ban – though one Poole clamper questioned whether the police can now deal with the problem.

It will become a criminal offence to clamp on private land as the Protection of Freedoms Act comes into force.

Parking firms can still issue tickets but motorists can fight any fees considered excessive in the courts.

Fred Wheatland, who took on clampers in Poole and won, said: “I am totally for this law. The police said our clamper had been escorting people to cash machines.”

The Echo reported in April how a meals-on-wheels van was clamped and charged £125 as it delivered food to vulnerable adults in Delphis Court, Poole.

Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood said: “Clamping was tantamount to a racket in some areas, where people quite innocently parking in the wrong place were faced with exorbitant fees compared with the same offence on public land.

“This change in the law is very welcome. Many operators were not just protecting property.”

However a spokesman for Poole-based clampers Patrol Plus said: “It remains to be seen if the police can attain and maintain the sense of security that society and business expect when it comes to dealing with illegally parked vehicles on private land.”

The Echo previously covered several incidents at one notorious clamping spot, a private car park at Latimer Road in Winton, opposite Winton Salvation Army.

In 2008 one woman was clamped 42 seconds into a 10 minute stop to drop off a charity donation – and charged £150.

Jon Payne, a clamping specialist from Bournemouth-based solicitors, Horsey Lightly Fynn, said: “This new law is quite a sensible, proportionate response when somebody has just parked in the wrong place.”

The new clamping law will apply to England and Wales, but not Northern Ireland.

Clamping and towing away on private land has been banned in Scotland since 1992.

Delighted AA president Edmund King said: “This campaign had become a personal crusade for me over the last decade.