FOR my first hour out and about with Richard, a civil enforcement officer for the North Essex Parking Partnership, I can see myself considering a career change.

Starting off in Head Street, High Street and West Stockwell Street, Colchester, we knock on a few car windows and get a few drivers moving who are blocking the road illegally.

We’re on the town centre beat where most drivers appear to be respectful, friendly and quick to admit their mistake when they know they’re in the wrong.

One gentleman even cracks a joke about waiting for his passenger to pick up his lunch from KFC, before promptly moving off for a lap of the town, no doubt before returning to pick up his bargain bucket.

Richard said: “If they are sat behind the wheel it is better to get them to move on.

“Nine times out of ten they are happy to move. Most people are just relieved you are not giving them a ticket.

“Not many refuse to move. I have had two cases in ten years.

“They just asked me to give them a ticket as they’d rather wait there for whoever they’re waiting for.

“Some drivers actually thank you because they think we just walk around and book vehicles.”

The blazing sunshine helps make things more enjoyable. Earlier in the day Richard tells me he got so soaked he had to arrange to be picked up from Vineyard Street car park by one of his colleagues.

Gazette:

Rain or shine, Richard and the team of Colchester’s dedicated officers will be on patrol.

He said: “Our main objective it to keep people moving. People think it is all about parking tickets but it isn’t, we are trying to make the roads safer for everybody.

“We are trying to educate people but it is an uphill struggle at times.”

After a trip round the town centre’s most congested roads, we head over to Colchester High School as it approaches pick up time.

Richard tells me it is unusually quiet. Schools are normally one of the busiest and potentially erratic parts of the rounds.

He said: “At some there are problems with people parking on the zig zags all the time.

“Schools are often where we have our most volatile confrontations. Some people just don’t respect the restrictions and don’t care. But it is also rewarding working outside schools because you know you are there for primarily safety reasons.

“When a youngster comes up to you and says thanks for helping, it means a lot.”

We soon realise the school has broken up early for summer, so it is back to the town centre to see how things in Head Street are ticking over.

After that, it is on to the High Street again, where we check drivers’ disabled badges and watch for those cheeky drivers looking to steal a few minutes in the loading and unloading bays.

So far, it has been a breeze and we’ve only issued one penalty charge notice to a woman flouting restrictions outside a nursery. But things change quickly.

Gazette:

For those who don’t know, a civil enforcement officer is essentially a traffic warden.

As a journalist, I know a thing or two about being in an career with an unpopular public opinion.

Traffic wardens, however, are probably even further down the list.

Richard said: “Nearly every time you go out you’ll get some sort of verbal abuse and sometimes it gets personal even though they don’t know you.

“It shakes you up a little bit but the next moment you can have a chat with an old lady or someone outside a school which cheers you up.

“We now have body worn cameras and we have to switch them on whenever we issue a PCN. It is for our safety as well as the safety of drivers.”

It soon becomes clear why extra security measures are needed.

We find a car parked in one of the bays in Colchester High Street, hazards flashing but driver nowhere to be seen.

As most residents of Colchester know, only disabled badge holders can park here between 8am and 6pm. So Richard starts his five minute timer.

As it ticks down, a man comes running towards us waving one arm, carrying two coffees in the other.

He says he has been to his business but doesn’t explain the cappuccinos.

Richard calmly explains the rules and issues the driver with a penalty.

The aggrieved driver begins to raise his voice and becomes, for someone not used to these kinds of situations at least, aggressive.

Not realising he is already on camera, he gets out of the vehicle and begins filming the officer on his iPhone. For Richard this is a regular occurrence.

“This isn’t unusual. Sometimes you feel physically threatened,” he said. “The most important thing is to stay calm and collected.

“He told me he had been to his business, but I do not know whether that is true. I can only take things by what I have seen.”

Gazette:

The situation is uncomfortable and I feel overwhelmingly sorry for Richard, a man who is just doing his job.

And in an instant I’m put off a career change and dreaming of the relative safety of the Gazette office.

You need to be a certain type of person to do this job, Richard tells me.

He says a people person, but obviously you need to also be thick skinned as well.

Richard said: “I really love my job. No two days are exactly the same.

“You really have to enjoy talking and meeting people. You can have a laugh with most members of the public and it makes the days enjoyable.

“I haven’t thought about changing careers.”

About the North Essex Parking Partnership

THE North Essex Parking Partnership is a council-run organisation which manages parking in Colchester, Tendring, Epping Forest, Braintree, Uttlesford and Harlow.

As well as issuing PCNs, the organisation manages car parks, deals with parking permits and implements parking restrictions.

Chairman Robert Mitchell said: “It is about helping people to park sensitively and safely.

“A lot of the money we make pays for the enforcement but any surplus goes back into highways projects.

“A lot goes into technology, for instance we are exploring ways of getting the number of parking spaces at sites to appear on GPS maps.

“The more rules are introduced the more enforcement is required.”

Visit parkingpartnership.org.