A Penzance man who 'verbally abused' one of the Council’s Civil Parking Enforcement Officers has been issued with a £90 fixed penalty notice by Devon and Cornwall Police.

The incident took place in Penzance’s Clarence Street on March 5 when the abusive comments made by the member of the public were recorded. CEOs are provided with lone worker devices as well as trialling head/body worn cameras to capture evidence of abuse, and have links for the police to be alerted.

The Council takes all incidents of violence or abuse towards its staff extremely seriously and is currently developing a Zero Tolerance initiative as a result of an increase in the number of incidents involving abuse. This initiative is due to be launched in the Summer.

“We recently asked staff to let us know if they had suffered abuse from members of the public to assess the scale of the problem and will be using the results of this survey to help develop the Zero Tolerance initiative” said Chief Executive Andrew Kerr.

“We acknowledge that the vast majority of people that we have dealings with are civil and polite. However we will not accept any form of abuse towards our staff who are carrying out their daily duties and will take appropriate measures to support them, including prosecution”.