Police officers have been slammed for their actions while policing an idyllic Scottish village.
The force was blasted after conducting speed checks in Tighnabruaich, Argyll and Bute, and publishing a picture of the operation on social media. The above photograph was posted on the Argyll & West Dunbartonshire Police Division Facebook page.
The post read: "Local officers from Argyll & West Dunbartonshire Police Division have been listening to your concerns and carrying out speed checks in Tighnabruaich. This also included checking everyone had a valid MOT and Insurance Policy to keep everyone using our roads safe. #RoadSafety #YouSaidWeDid #YourPolice ".
User Mark Currie wrote: "The positioning of your vehicle, occupying that particular lay-by is totally irresponsible. Don't talk about keeping people 'safe' when you have not considered that you could have parked along the road and walked to where the officer is.
"That road is often busy with loaded HGVs. Tell me where a driver leaving Tighnabruaich is meant to place their car if they meet a fully-loaded wagon, coming around the corner, in slippery winter conditions. That’s a rhetorical question - I already know the answer, and so should you."
The force responded: "The officers must remain beside the vehicle hence the reason for the parking. If anyone needed passed they would obviously move to accommodate this." But Mark wrote back: "I believe in this case what you have done is compromised an important lay-by in the interests of ‘catching’ drivers as they come around a poorly sighted corner.
"A more appropriate position would have been further back, towards Tighnabruaich (the other side of the junction to go down the hill). If you were to drive past and see somebody parked in the lay-by, in question, for a picnic - I don’t believe you would find it acceptable.
"No need to discuss further, other than to say you are meant to lead by example. In my opinion this is not a good example." Police Scotland was approached for comment on the criticism. Tighnabruaich is described by VisitScotland - the country's national tourist organisation, as "a pretty little village on the west coast of Scotland".
It says the village sits "on the shore of the beautiful Kyles of Bute" and is "promoted as part of ‘Argyll’s Secret Coast’." Around a 90 minute drive from Glasgow, it is situated along east coast of Loch Fyne and has a number of cycle routes and walking trails. It is popular for sailing, yachting and rock fishing and has its own sailing school.
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