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Posting pictures of poor parkers
NAME and SHAME: Visitors to the Facebook page are asked to post their pictures of bad parking.
WE’VE all seen examples – parking on double yellows or a foot away from the kerb, double parking, straddling the bays in car parks, blocking ‘access all times’ exits.
Now some of the worst offenders are being named and shamed on a new Facebook page appropriately entitled Stupid Idiot Parking Isle of Man.
Those visiting facebook.com/StupidIdiotParkingIsleOfMan can submit their own photographs of inept parking skills they’ve spotted around the island.
It urges visitors: ’Don’t forget to take lots of pics to name and shame the stupid idiots of the Isle of Man.’ It says it is also looking for ‘pics of people parked in stupid places using mobile phones’.
The page, which has already attracted more than 1,500 ‘likes’, takes its inspiration from a UK website with an altogether more disparaging name for problem parkers which is too obscene to name here.
Photos contributed so far show some spectacular examples – one car is shown parked half on the kerb and half on zig-zag white lines close to a zebra crossing in Peel, another shows a hatchback blocking a fire exit.
In some cases the registration plates have been blanked out – but in most cases they are not.
And concerns have been raised about identifying individual vehicles whose drivers are being accused of parking infringements. Already at least one picture has been removed.
Vote on this issue in our web poll using the panel at the right of this article.
The page has been set up anonymously – but it’s certainly got the backing of the wife of Home Affairs Minister Juan Watterson MHK.
On her own Facebook page, Mr Watterson’s wife Helena posted on September 15: ‘Have I ever mentioned how much I hate people who park illegally and block the drop curbs that disabled and mothers with prams rely upon?! Had a completely ignorant “bleep” throw all sorts of swear words at me when I asked him kindly to move his car that was illegally parked – apparently I am the “parking police”. All I can say is that next time, Mr, my camera phone will be out filming you and I will send it to the police by email. I love technology I do and I hate rude slack-jawed people.’
Three days later, the naming and shaming Facebook site was set up and Mrs Watterson was among the first to post a couple of comments in her own name.
In one post she wrote: ‘The police might want to like this page to fine the idiots.’
When one poster questioned whether you could publish pictures of car number plates, she replied: ‘There is no law against posting pics of licence plates as it is not a protected form of identification, only becomes an issue if you try to make false claims that the driver of the car was doing something illegal if they were not, which I don’t think pics of people parking illegally can fall into that category, so happy snappy folks lol.’
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Weather for Isle of Man
Monday 20 May 2013
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 8 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: North west
