Highways anti-abuse campaign launched

A council traffic warden was assaulted in Whitehaven while he was trying to issue a parking ticket, it has been revealed.

Cumberland Council is seeking to prosecute the individual, for the attack on the civil enforcement officer, and the matter is currently in the hands of the police.

The local authority is due launch an anti-abuse campaign will be launched aimed at reducing the abuse and physical assaults against council staff, by members of the public, who are just trying to do their jobs.

It follows the success of a similar initiative last year which featured photos of the children of staff members, wearing oversized Hi-Viz clothing, with the slogan ‘My daddy works here’.

Images for this year’s campaign were unveiled during Thursday’s (October 23) meeting of the council’s highways and transport strategic board at the Civic Centre in Carlisle.

This year it features council staff members with slogans including: ‘Parking tickets aren’t personal. The abuse shouldn’t be either’.

When asked about the recent assault Karl Melville, the council’s assistant director of highways and transport, said: “In recent weeks we’ve had one of our parking officers assaulted while carrying out their normal routine work within Whitehaven, where they were issuing a parking ticket to a vehicle that was non-compliant with the parking regulations.

“As a result of that, the owner of the vehicle came back and physically assaulted our member of staff, just by not only pushing and verbally abusing them, but actually throwing things at them.

“That’s currently with the police to be investigated. We’ve got CCTV footage from the bodycam that the officer was wearing. So that evidence has all been provided to the police and they’re now going to look at prosecution of that individual.”

Councillor Denise Rollo, the sustainable, resilient and connected places, said: “We want the public to understand that abuse towards our staff, whether verbal, physical or psychological, will not be tolerated.

“Most of our employees live right here in Cumbria. They have partners, friends, and children in the area. You wouldn’t want your loved one to go to work and feel intimidated or unsafe, and we don’t expect that for our staff either.”

The campaign will be a region-wide initiative to improve road safety and tackle abuse against public-facing staff.

At the heart of this campaign is a powerful message: behind every uniform is a person. Abuse of any kind is unacceptable.

The council is urging the public to show respect and compassion for the dedicated individuals who work tirelessly to serve communities across the council area.

It will be rolled out through pop-ups, posters, digital displays, signage boards on highways, community notice boards, and updates across social media platforms.

To support staff safety and accountability:

Bodycams will be worn by selected team members to record any abusive behaviour or breaches of traffic management;

Footage of incidents will be handed to the police for potential prosecution;

Surveillance technology, including mobile CCTV and signage cameras, will monitor high-risk areas and help deter misconduct.

This campaign begins with the highways and transport teams but will expand to cover all council departments in the coming weeks.