PARKING wardens in Bolton are to be fitted with lightweight head cameras to collect evidence against motorists who at-tack them while on duty.

Bolton will become the first borough in the country to equip all wardens with the battery-sized cameras, which will also be used to help train new wardens.

Funding for the scheme, which is costing £16,000, was agreed last March, but Bolton Council and parking enforcement firm NSL, which employs the wardens, have spent 18 months developing the technology and the protocol for using the cameras.

And with the new cameras set to go live on Monday, the abuse wardens are faced with from disgruntled motorists every day can be revealed.

One warden, who did not want to be named, said she had been groped, had an ashtray thrown at her outside a pub in Little Lever and was verbally abused and threatened with a baseball bat while on duty in Horwich during her eight years on the streets of Bolton.

She said: “We are taught how to deal with these kinds of incidents, but it can get very scary out there.

“The incident in Horwich was the scariest. We had just booked a long line of cars when suddenly our vehicle was surrounded by a group of men with baseball bats. We were trapped for a few minutes before the police came.

“They managed to get away, but if we had had the cameras then we could have collected evidence and probably got a prosecution.

“I have never considered quitting because I just see it as me doing my job, and it’s a job that I love.”

Over the past three years, there have been 53 “code red” incidents, which includes physical attacks, spitting, wardens being driven at and motorists pulling out knives.

There have also been 12 “code yellow” verbal abuse incidents.

Two cases are currently going through the courts, where motorists have driven at wardens and, in one case, at a member of the public.

Each camera is attached to the side of the warden’s cap and it records images continuously over the warden’s shift.

These images are then downloaded on to a computer when the warden returns to the office.

Cllr Ismail Ibrahim, Bolton Council’s executive member for environmental services, said: “A minority of people think that civil enforcement officers are a legitimate target for verbal and physical abuse, and the fact that they are being filmed on camera should hopefully make people think twice.”

Bolton has 21 parking wardens, with 12 on duty at any one time.

Tim Cowen, from enforcement firm NSL which employs the wardens, said: “Assaults on our staff are a minor but persistent problem. As far as we are concerned one assault is one too many.

“These cameras have proven very effective in deterring assaults.”

andrew.greaves@ theboltonnews.co.uk