THEY are perhaps the most reviled of public servants – routine targets of both physical and verbal abuse.
But now parking wardens in one Scottish town are being equipped with head-mounted CCTV-style kit for the first time to protect the "yellow peril" from irate motorists.
And, in what one leading motoring organisation hailed as a "win-win situatio
n", evidence recorded by the new equipment will also be used to help drivers settle court disputes over fixed parking penalties.
The devices have been issued to 16 wardens who are employed by Perth and Kinross Council to provide them with what the authority claims will be an "extra degree of security".
The video equipment, costing £25,000, will be used to record confrontations in which parking attendants are assaulted or subjected to abusive behaviour.
The council is not alone in issuing sophisticated equipment to parking wardens. In Edinburgh, the so-called "Blue Meanies" who patrol the streets have been given access to DNA swabbing kits after members of staff were spat on by angry drivers.
Councillor John Kellas, the council's enterprise and infrastructure convener, stressed that the new cameras were being issued as an additional safeguard and not in response to any surge in incidents involving traffic wardens operating in Perth.
He said: "Council employees should not be subjected to either physical or verbal abuse while carrying out their duties and this equipment should deter individuals from engaging in this type of behaviour.
"The purpose is not to seek prosecutions against people or anything like that. The purpose is to improve relations between the wardens and the public.
"This equipment will provide corroborative evidence of verbal abuse or threatening behaviour towards these employees as well as a record, while they are carrying out their duties, of any direct contact with members of the public which may subsequently be subject to dispute. It will also be very useful in settling disputes or complaints over parking issues."
He added: "The parking wardens I have spoken to are very positive about the system. They feel it's a useful tool which will prevent people saying one thing when in fact the occurrence was another. And I think it will also identify the fact that the approach of wardens has to be uniform and even handed as well."
The new system was welcomed by drivers' organisations. Neil Greig, a spokesman for the Institute of Advanced Motorists' Motoring Trust, said: "Parking attendants are never going to be popular. It is regrettable but these people do get threatened in their working life and anything that gives them a bit of extra protection is to be welcomed.
"But I particularly welcome the fact that it will actually help to resolve parking disputes. The fact that this evidence is going to be available should help both sides. It's a win-win situation."
And Bruce Young, a Scottish spokesman for the Association of British Drivers, said: "I don't see any harm in equipping wardens with these cameras. But the more obvious approach would be make their attendants more user friendly and avoid abuse in the first place.
"The attendants would be far better introducing a bit of customer good will and interpersonal skills to their training instead of being a bunch of yobs who are going around looking to hit people with parking tickets."
PERSONAL CCTV TO DETER POTENTIAL ATTACKERSTHE cameras, similar to those used on computers, can be easily fitted to the uniforms of the wardens.
A spokesman for Perth and Kinross Council said: "The equipment has been developed to meet Home Office and Data Protection Commissioner guidelines with regard to encryption and access control. The back-office software allows access only to authorised administrators and provides an audit trail for access, management and redistribution of any evidential footage.
"The recordings are admissible in court proceedings due to the high security involved in the processing of the data."
Five years ago, traffic wardens in Edinburgh were the first in Britain to be issued with DNA recovery kits to trace assailants who spat at them. The move followed a series of attacks.
The 56 police wardens patrolling the city's bus lanes can access the swab kits within minutes by calling vans equipped with them.
