...Thoedora Loizou has been nick named the hammer gran, because she smashed the clampers van with a hammer!. This was because they clamped her for an out of date Tax Disc.Well the title says it all. This was actually a comment made by Anne, the head chair lady of the THCH (Tower Hamlets community Housing), after we presented our petition. We wiped the smile off her face though. More on this in a bit…. I had waited to attend this residents meeting all week. I had so much to say about the way I was treated and the way my fellow residents felt. So myself, my grandson Nicky and granddaughter Louisa attended the residents meeting on the 15/11/06. My fellow residents wished me good luck and off we went. When we arrived at the meeting, parking was on the agenda and thankfully was near the top of the list. We sat down in the front row and waited for parking to be discussed Finally it was nearly our turn. As the THCH parking rules was about to be discussed, Anne (the THCH chair lady) turned to me and said, “You’re here to discuss the parking aren’t you?" I had never seen this lady before but she definitely had heard about the hammer gran. She gave a short description of the current status of the car parking rules and asked people for their opinions. We were the first to speak and with this my grandson stated (who takes up the story) “I am speaking on behalf of my grandmother, Theodora Loizou who has parked peacefully in her own parking bay for the past 26 years. Your new car parking rules got her clamped and caused her misery and distress. You clamped her for having an out of date Tax Disc that expired 36 hours earlier, on your own private land. There was no need for this as it was YOUR OWN PRIVATE LAND. These rules need to be changed and we want the clamping of us residents to be stopped as of now!” Well that made them pause for a second. Another chair lady informed us that no clamping company would operate without using clampers. I explained that we simply wanted clamping of the residents to stop and this should not be a problem. The council they took over from (Tower Hamlets) did not clamp its residents and there were never any problems I told her. The lady explained that THCHs new rules had reduced the number of abandoned cars in their car parks. I stated that “yes this probably had stopped OUTSIDERS from abandoning their cars but asked her to explain, "How clamping a residents car, in its own bay, while showing a valid parking permit was reducing this problem?” With this she explained that THCH were discussing imposing a 2 weeks grace period on their land for residents whos Tax Disc had run out. Again what rubbish this was. I said that the DVLA automatically sent out fines for failing to a register a SORN (Statutory Off Road Decoration). I asked why then, when we are governed by the laws of the land do we need to be clamped by our housing association as well? We told her that the THCH should send out reminder notices if they come across an out of date Tax Disc on a car thats resistered in its bay. Waiting for an explanation takes into account people who may be sick or on holiday. With this my Gran was eager to talk and highlighted that there was other problems as well. She informed the chair people that their car management company (ISTM) was over zealous in applying clamps. As soon a clamper arrives into a resident’s car park they clamp the cars in the visitors bays strait away. This had caused problems where visitors had gone into people’s houses to pick up a visitors scratch card. The chair lady stated that ISTM must give 10 mins grace for people not showing a valid permit.