For years, parents of Batley Parish School pupils have been parking outside the Church Steps public house, on Stocks Lane, and walking with their children to school.

But in recent weeks signs have been put up outside the pub informing parents their cars will be clamped if they park there – with a £100 fee to get the clamp removed.

Zoe Thackrah, a pregnant mum of two from Soothill, returned to her car after spending 10 minutes walking her four-year-old son into school to find she had been clamped.

The incensed mum from Fort Ann Road said: "I was just concerned with getting my two children out of the car and to the school safely, I wasn't looking for signs in the car park.

"When I got back there was this clamp stuck to my wheel. I couldn't just go and get £100 because there was no way I could get home. I was incandescent with rage. In the end my husband came home from work and paid it."

Mrs Thackrah said she couldn't understand why the landlord at the pub had brought clampers in without speaking to parents first.

She said: "I went in to see him after I was clamped and said I could understand his reasons for not wanting people to park there, but it would have been nicer if he had just talked to us."

But landlord David Almond said it was private land and a private access road and he had spent four weeks trying to stop parents from parking there.

He said: "They park over my drop so I can't get my deliveries. I've put notes under windscreen wipers and I've spoken to them but they just ignore you.

"That land is for my customers and the road is not a public thoroughfare.

"I've done all I can. I went to the school and spoke to the headmaster and they put out two newsletters saying not to park there."

Mr Almond, who has been at the pub for three months, said things came to a head when a John Smith's wagon arrived and had to wait 30 minutes because a parent had parked his car over the delivery hatch.

He said: "The last landlord had the same problems and he put up with it but I'm not willing to."