9:30am Saturday 13th March 2010
By Sam Chadderton
A BLACKBURN pharmacist has accused a clamping firm of holding him to ransom over the delivery of vital drugs for cancer-stricken patients.
Riaz Hinglotwala, 36, who runs Whalley Range Pharmacy, has hit out after claiming his delivery driver was clamped after parking for just two minutes on a car park owned by Twin Valley Homes.
The driver, Harun Saleh, had left his van with the pharmacy logo and sign-age parked outside Stonyhurst Close, off Montague Street, Blackburn at 3.18pm on Tuesday, while he dropped off ‘urgent medication’ for a psychiatric patient.
But he returned to find his van, which was parked in a residents-only bay, clamped by a National Clamps enforcer.
Mr Hinglotwala said: “My driver put the National Clamps man on the phone and I explained that he needed to be released to carry on his rounds.
“These are very urgent deliveries and he had another 20 in Blackburn to do.
"We are talking about people undergoing palli-ative care who are housebound, others who have cancer and need painkillers, some who need heart medication and also antibiotics.
“I explained all this to him and later complained to his supervisor, but they didn’t care.
“He wasn’t having any of it and just held me to ransom.”
Mr Hinglotwala, who has run the busy pharmacist for more than three years, said he paid the £83 release fee by credit card over the phone to prevent further delay.
Kevin Ruth, executive director of Twin Valley Homes, said: “This is a very unfortunate situation but one that could very easily have been avoided.
“The car parks are clearly marked as “permit parking only” but there is time-limited, on-street parking available as well as public car parks.
“But each household in this area, including non-drivers, is entitled to a visitor’s parking permit, which they can give to one visitor.
"We would advise the pharmacy to speak to their clients to ask them for a visitor’s pass to use in future.”
Trevor Whitehouse, the chairman of National Clamps declined to comment.
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