Traffic wardens abused 'almost daily'

Traffic wardens in Wolverhampton are abused "almost every day", council chiefs said today as they revealed a catalogue of attacks against attendants.

Wardens working on the streets of Wolverhampton have been fired at by a pellet gun, a dart and even driven at by motorists angry at receiving a ticket.

The volume of attacks has now prompted the authority to call for tougher sentences rather than just police cautions for drivers who lash out.

Since the new-style wardens hit the city's streets just over a year ago attacks recorded include:

* A driver spitting on an attendant before driving off.

* A warden being punched.

* Drivers slapping their parking tickets on attendants' uniforms.

* A motorist reversing their car into a warden

* A stone being thrown out of a moving car at a warden

* An attendant being hit on the knee by a drinks can thrown by a car passenger.

* An attendant having a liquid poured on her, driven at and then threatened.

* A juvenile kicking a warden.

In total, 17 physical attacks have been reported in the first 12 months since Wolverhampton City Council took control of parking enforcement in the city in February last year.

Details have been passed to the police on a number of occasions resulting in three drivers receiving cautions.

Incidents of verbal abuse are much more common.

Wolverhampton City Council spokesman Tim Clark said: "Parking attendants endure verbal abuse on an almost daily basis.

"People will quite rightly be appalled by some of the examples of thuggish violence and abuse our parking attendants have endured. "These are men and women doing a valuable job of work to keep the city moving and prevent illegal and often selfish parking."

He added the authority was concerned some of the perpetrators were not receiving tough enough punishments. "For example, we don't feel in many cases that a police caution adequately sends out a strong enough message to society that this behaviour is completely unacceptable," he added.

"We enjoy a positive and close working relationship with the police and will be looking to discuss this issue with officers at one of our regular meetings with them."

Last month it was revealed the council has raked in £500,000 since taking over control of parking from the police.

During the first year of operation the authority's team of officers dished out around 70 tickets a day to drivers.

The £503,760 income generated from the 21,515 penalty charge notices given out has gone back into running the operation.