A last quick message to say the car's been unclamped. Hurray! Thanks again to Tomtubby for the help and advice.

We’ve now filed an out-of-time statutory declaration and, touch wood, everything has been sorted. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who responded with advice. Isn’t the internet brilliant and aren’t websites like this one fantastic! Tomtubby, in particular, you’ve been a complete star. I can’t thank you enough for going out of your way to help us - it’s incredibly kind of you and very much appreciated.

Many thanks for the advice. The trouble is, the counter at the local county court only opens at 10am, by which time he'll have towed the car... Perhaps I should sit in the car to stop him (am 8 months pregnant so that should give him pause for thought!). Perhaps the only thing to do is to pay now and contest later - do you know if it's any harder to reclaim charges once you've paid them, than it is to avoid paying them in the first place, if you see what I mean? If not, is it possible for me to pay now and then file a Form 4 complaint? Does £600 seem excessive or is it just me who thinks that! Thanks again for your help.

Please could anyone help? my car was clamped today, because of an unpaid Kensington & Chelsea parking ticket I never received. This is the first I've ever heard about it (apparently the ticket was issued in June - I've moved house since then). I called the number and spoke to the bailiff at 9.15pm. He said that the fee was £600 and unless I pay by 10am tomorrow morning he will tow the car away. That leaves me only one hour tomorrow to ring up his company (TASK, in Croydon) or the council, since their phone lines only open at 9am. The bailiff refused to itemise the charges. I rang off and having read up a bit on the web, at 9.30pm I tried to call the bailiff back but he has switched his telephone off. Is this legal? £600 for one parking ticket seems excessive? But I don't want him to tow the car at 10am tomorrow. He only told me he was going to do so right at the end of the call, when I said I was going to contest his charges - until then he was obviously hoping to get away with towing it at 10am and charging still more. Any advice would be very welcome.