A VIGILANTE parking warden has riled residents by doling out his OWN tickets to motorists leaving their cars on the pavement. Tony Weafer, 68, decided to take matters into his own hands and created some DIY stickers to slap on the windscreens of “rule breakers”. But livid locals in Shirley, Southampton, have demanded that the wannabe […]
A VIGILANTE parking warden has riled residents by doling out his OWN tickets to motorists leaving their cars on the pavement.
Tony Weafer, 68, decided to take matters into his own hands and created some DIY stickers to slap on the windscreens of “rule breakers”.
But livid locals in Shirley, Southampton, have demanded that the wannabe parking warden must be stopped.
Fed-up drivers have branded him a “pain” while businesses fear he is scaring off their customers.
The pensioner plasters his Pavements For People stickers on any vehicle he deems is parked in a “dangerous and unnecessary” position.
What’s more – he’ll even take a picture and then report the vehicle to the council so the owner faces the consequences for their bad parking.
Jane Taylor, a mobility scooter shop assistant, hit out at Tony for playing God with parking rules and reporting unlucky locals.
The 46-year-old, who has worked at the shop for three and a half years, told The Sun Online: “He’s a right pain coming up and down here.
“You see him and think ‘oh God there he is again’.
“It’s not happened to me, thank God. The customers it’s happened to just take the stickers off straight away.
“They wonder if it’s a legal thing or if they’re going to get in trouble, but we tell them to just ignore it.”
Another worker on Shirley High Street said the aspiring parking warden is on the lookout “all the time” – and even orders them to pick up rubbish that has been abandoned outside their premises.
The employee, who wished to remain anonymous, explained: “I’d say up to 20 customers have had stickers on their cars.
“We do get a lot of people just park up and run in. When they’ve been stickered, they ask if we know anything about it and we just say ‘no’.
“We’ve had workmen here are they’ve parked their van and he’s stuck stickers all over the van – on the windscreen and mirrors.
“He does come in and asks to see our CCTV now and again. He wants to monitor our CCTV and we tell him he can’t.
He’s a right pain coming up and down here. You see him and think ‘oh God there he is again’.
Jane Taylor
“If customers put litter outside he comes and tells us to pick it up.”
But Tony insists he is only easing the plights of people walking along the chocka-block pavements, as they are “the ones who suffer”.
Tony claimed: “I’ve seen a blind person bump into a car and accidentally walk in the road to try and find their way around it.”
Business owner Aziz Aziz is also at the end of his tether with Tony, as one of his delivery vans has been stickered.
The owner of supermarket Winmar International Food Store sighed wearily as he said: “He’s reported us many times.
“We only park the van outside for 15 to 20 minutes to unload the goods then it goes, but he reports us anyway and tells us not to park there.
“We’re going to speak to the council about him.”
Grandfather Tony ordered 1,000 of his infamous red and white stickers and has managed to get through at least 300 in the last two years.
He hit back at disgruntled drivers and said he simply “made it his responsibility to do what he can to promote the area.”
The pensioner is hoping to change the law and has now got in touch with his local Labour councillor to amp up his fight.
He said: “I noticed that there are no Civil Enforcement Officers, not enough at all.
“A number of customers of businesses have been allowed to park wherever they want and they’ve become used to that freedom.
“They need to be told what to do.
“They need to make it illegal here like London. It’s one rule for London and another for Southampton.”
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But his unusual past time has landed him in hot water online too, as Facebook users have threatened to “punch him” if he stickers their car.
The Sun Online have contacted Southampton City Council for comment.
