IF the threat of parking tickets won't stop them, perhaps this will.

A Poole man is seeking to ridicule selfish drivers on a website devoted to pictures of bad parking.

David Allen set up his site - www.niceparking.co.uk - after Bournemouth and Poole councils introduced their own parking warden services.

He and some friends have contributed the first pictures, all of which come from Dorset. But he hopes people from across the country and beyond will submit their own.

"Some people think that parking regulations are put there for no other reason than to annoy them - not to improve safety or to help the disabled or to keep traffic flowing," he said.

"So we came up with the idea of a website showing how dangerous, inconsiderate or just plain unbelievable some drivers are when parking. The aim is to increase awareness of safe parking by highlighting the sometimes just laughable places drivers choose to park."

The home page of the website features Mr Allen's favourite shot - of a Vauxhall Astra in Westbourne's Seamoor Road, parked at a junction, on a bend, on yellow lines, in front of a bus stop and barely within sight of the kerb.

"How often do you sit in a queue of traffic behind a bus because the poor bus driver can't pull in to the stop?" he said.

"The bus companies have spent a lot of money on low floor buses and the councils a lot of tax payers' money trying to reduce road congestion by encouraging people to use buses, only to see it wasted because of someone's selfish parking."

If anybody recognises a vehicle in any of the pictures, they are invited to "name and shame" the culprits. Mr Allen has blanked out part of the registration numbers, and anyone who can correctly complete one can submit the name of the offending parker.

But as well as heaping derision on bad parkers, the website aims to serve a serious educational purpose. There are pages containing road safety information for youngsters aged seven to 12, including Highway Code rules and quizzes. Mr Allen is looking for a sponsor so he can give away prizes.

Gerry Bolland, enforcement and parking manager for Bournemouth Borough Council, welcomed the website. "I think it's an excellent idea, particularly where bad parking obstructs footways," he said.

He said wheelchair-users and partially-sighted people suffered when people parked with their car wheels on pavements. "Anything that highlights the folly of doing that sort of thing is good as far as I'm concerned," he added.

He said parking wardens also found it hard to reach irresponsible parents on the school run. "We go down and blitz it for a day, but we're trying to overturn 50 years of car culture and the next day they're back again," he added.

Cllr Basil Ratcliffe, the council's cabinet member for the environment, added: "So many of our problems are caused by bad parking. They're not only parking in the wrong place but they park badly in that place.

"On the whole, there's a pretty poor standard of driving around here."