By Sarah ChambersWHEN it comes to popularity polls, traffic wardens usually figure highly on the list of people whom the public love to hate.So it is perhaps strange that residents in one season town are bemoaning the loss of their parking enforcer and want him replaced.

By Sarah Chambers

WHEN it comes to popularity polls, traffic wardens usually figure highly on the list of people whom the public love to hate.

So it is perhaps strange that residents in one season town are bemoaning the loss of their parking enforcer and want him replaced.

Aldeburgh has been without a traffic warden for the past four months after he left to take up a new position and motorists have been taking advantage of the “yellow peril's” absence.

Now the town council has written to Suffolk police, voicing its concerns about the situation and fears that the problem will get worse during the busy summer months.

Andrew Harris, town council clerk, admitted: “It's unusual for a town to say it wants a traffic warden.”

He said the town council had serious concerns about the impact of the long-term absence of the traffic warden, with illegal parking already on the increase, and feared what may happen in the summer months unless a new postholder was in place.

Karen Cartwright, owner of Harveys fishmonger's, which lies on a yellow-lined section of the resort's High Street, said: “We do laugh and joke, but I do get incensed at the amount of cars that park here and it's such a dangerous corner.

“It's a difficult problem and it is not just for Aldeburgh, it is for any small town, but people are always just going to chance their arm.

“The parking in Aldeburgh is always atrocious anyway, whether we've got a traffic warden or not.”

Margaret Howard, shop assistant at a town clothes shop, said the situation had been made worse by the introduction of parking charges in Aldeburgh as motorists sought to avoid paying the fees.

“People park where they want to in Aldeburgh anyway, they always have done. My mother always maintained that the ladies would get their cars in the shops if they could,” she added.

“If they know the traffic warden is about, they do move. We do need it because people do abuse the parking rules round here badly.”

But Sarah Hinves, owner of two town stores, Fleur and MacGregor's, felt the town did not need a traffic warden and they were “a waste of money”.

She added: “I don't think there's any need for one really in the town. It deters people from coming to the town because they think they're going to get nabbed by somebody.”

Suffolk police said they were planning to advertise the post shortly and added police officers were carrying out patrols in Aldeburgh in the meantime.

sarah.chambers@eadt.co.uk