Hug a traffic warden

Meet Helen, who has perhaps the most revolutionary idea in the world. I talked to her at a roundtable in Birmingham this week on local authority services (please excuse my low photography skills). Her idea, which she is getting going at the new, one-month old unitary authority Cheshire West, is to get traffic wardens to do something that the public care about.

All local authorities have people doing ‘regulatory’ work, like environmental health, trading standards and parking. Helen’s attempt at revolution is to persuade people like traffic wardens to check out dodgy dealers and sharp practices by traders as they head around town.

Could we ever really love traffic wardens? Could they ever not hate us?

We will have to watch Cheshire West.