Traffic warden hiring issues due to abuse - report

Hiring and retaining parking wardens is becoming more difficult due to widespread abuse, a council meeting has heard.

Parking manager Paul Bowman told Coventry city councillors he had received feedback people would rather work in fast food takeaways than in parking.

Mr Bowman said it was a nationwide problem and officers on Coventry had spoken of a frequent lack of respect.

Council papers revealed that while there were 33 officers, the service was suffering staff shortages with four roles vacant and struggling to be filled.

In February, a parking warden in the city said he felt "let down" by the police response after he was knocked to the ground during a scuffle with a member of the public.

The report added officers had started wearing body cameras to help reduce the risk of being assaulted and help with prosecution.

Mr Bowman added that the council’s parking service had a higher than average sickness level than the council as a whole.

“People do get impacted by what they experience on the street [and] some of it is stress related,” he said.

“It’s an impactful job role that causes a lot of the sick[ness] levels we experience, we need to be sympathetic to that.”

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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