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Wellington motorists have been stung with almost $10 million in parking fines in the past year, and some wardens have faced so much abuse that they have quit.

In the past two years, wardens have been sworn at, spat on, shouldered, grabbed, driven at in cars and menaced with a wheelbarrow.

Wardens in return have been accused of swearing and threatening, and one warden responded to allegations of giving a motorist the finger by saying they were merely using hand signals to ask the motorist to move on.

That same warden was later twice accused of “lecturing” drivers about bad parking behaviour. The warden admitted being slightly aggressive and was given “customer service training” but no longer works handing out tickets.

“There’s quite a big turnover of wardens,” parking services manager Colleen Thessman said. “You do take a lot of flak on the streets. No one likes a warden. I was a warden myself for seven years, it’s an incredibly difficult job, to be honest.”

Fifty-two wardens complained of abuse last year: four were spat on, 17 were physically abused, such as being shouldered, grabbed by the arm or having their hat knocked off. Six had motorists drive a vehicle at them, one of which was a wheelbarrow. In 2007, a warden was chased by a driver in a forklift.

The council investigated 28 complaints against wardens. Four for aggressive or threatening demeanour and five for inappropriate language led to further warden training.

In the year to June 2009, wardens in the capital wrote on average 745 tickets worth $27,000 every day.

The total 272,000 tickets were worth $9.9m – $700,000 more than the year before, figures released to The Dominion Post show. In the year to June 2008, they issued 248,000 tickets worth $9.2m.

Ms Thessman said tickets were not aimed at generating revenue, but to ensure parking compliance. “It’s about giving everybody that opportunity to park and go about their business. If someone’s parked there all day, no-one else gets a chance to park. It’s about space turnover.”

Wellington’s large number of tickets was due to “non-compliance and bad parking behaviour”.

The city’s topography contributed to the problem, she said, as many motorists parked on footpaths in narrow streets to give other motorists more space or keep their own cars safe, blocking pedestrians in the process.

Ms Thessman said wardens were trained in conflict resolution and customer services and most accepted abuse was part of the job. But some resigned because of it.

“The ability to issue tickets obviously makes wardens unpopular with motorists – and conflict, and a certain amount of stress, is an inevitable part of the job.”

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