Car prize on offer for Traffic Warden Of The Year

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Traffic wardens - one of Britain's most hated professions - could be in line to win a new car for dishing out parking fines.

Under a bonus scheme organised by National Car Parks, attendants patrolling the streets of Westminster in London are competing against each other for a Vauxhall Corsa.

Defending the Parking Attendant of the Year scheme, NCP's Ian Kavanagh stressed that a warden's productivity was not the only criteria.

"This new scheme is to be an acknowledgement and recognition of (the wardens') work. The parking attendants will be closely monitored and awards given out to those who fulfil a list of criteria including appearance, attendance, customer service, disciplinary record as well as actual performance.

"This is a carefully controlled scheme to encourage our staff to do a very good job," he said - stressing the importance attached to the percentage of valid tickets issued.

"It is therefore in no-one's interest to issue invalid tickets and a parking attendant with a high number of challenged tickets will stand no chance of doing well under this incentive scheme."

NCP took over the Westminster City Council contract in April and around 250 NCP wardens work in the area. A Westminster City Council spokesman said the number of Parking Charge Notices issued is down compared with last year.

He added: "It's not about encouraging people to give out millions of tickets. It's about giving out good tickets. One of the reasons we changed contractors is to stop the number of complaints we're getting."

"The majority of parking attendants will not benefit from this scheme and, while the scheme is designed to ensure all attendants issue similar numbers of valid tickets, it has a range of other criteria including attendance record, productivity and the number of tickets challenged.

"The criteria also states that to be eligible under the scheme, an attendant must have a clean complaints and disciplinary record," he said.