PHYSICAL assault, verbal abuse, flying eggs and even snooker balls - a selection of the perils Southend's parking attendants face when they head out on patrol.

So it was with some trepidation I put on an Apcoa Parking warden's uniform to sample life on the streets for myself.

Apcoa is the firm paid by Southend Council to enforce the town's parking rules - no easy task, the company's contract manager Neil Hunwicks admits before we head out.

"He says "Until I entered this job, I didn't realise how difficult it was.

"With what we pay and what the staff have to put up with, we have a high staff turnover, compared to other industries."

I spent a sunny morning trudging round town with one of the company's civil enforcement officers.

She's 21, from Leigh, and after three years handing out tickets on the streets, is none too keen to have her name in the paper.

As we leave the office and walk along North Road, she tells me: "We've had a couple of officers egged' along here.

"Throwing eggs at us seems a favourite thing for people to do.

"Public perception is the worst part of the job. They see you as a bad person, so they give you grief.

"But you're trained to deal with it and to remember it's only the uniform people hate.

"Once someone who'd just got a ticket drove at me in their car. It caught my arm. I only got some bruising, but I was quite shaken for a while.

"Unfortunately, the man wasn't prosecuted."

Our first couple of hours pass uneventfully. We issue just two tickets - contrary to the popular perception, officers do not have targets for the number of tickets issued, nor do they earn a commission on fines.

In fact, I was surprised how polite and co-operative most motorists are when asked to move on.

My colleague is polite and explains exactly why she wants them to move - something which clearly helps.

To many drivers, she is already a familiar face with whom they are happy to share a friendly word.

Approaching the town centre, however, the hostility level ratchets up, with shoppers eyeing us much more warily.

One man, double-parked and unloading in Clifftown Road, unleashes a torrent of foul-mouthed abuse when we ask him to move on.

He claims another warden has told him what he's doing is fine.

"You learn not to answer back," says my fellow warden. "You just have to stay calm."

Another workman angrily accuses us of being unreasonable because we ask him to move off the double-yellow lines where he is parked.

Later, my colleague ends up doing something she admits she finds difficult.

She slaps a ticket on a car bearing a blue disabled badge. It's parked in an area where even disabled drivers are not allowed to stay after 11am.

"It's one of the horrible parts of the job," she says, "but it has to be done."

Her action provokes adverse attention from passers-by - a group of youngsters call us "vultures" as we walk along London Road, near Sainsbury.

However, we return to base unscathed and I'm relieved to have escaped flying eggs, or worse.

It's been an interesting experience, though a more eventful day might have been more exciting for me, if not my colleague.

She says: "Sometimes you're rushed off your feet, Other times, nothing happens. Every day is different for us.

"The best thing about the job is meeting people, which I love, and getting out and about."

25 per cent rise in attacks on wardens
ATTACKS on wardens in Southend increased by almost a quarter last year.

Complaints of verbal abuse and threats have also more than doubled since 2006, figures show.

Five people have been successfully convicted for assaulting or abusing enforcement officers since January 2007 However, the prosecutions are merely the tip of the iceberg. In 2007, 21 physical assaults were recorded, along with 34 incidents of verbal abuse The previous year, there were 17 physical assauts and 16 incidents of verbal abuse.

Apcoa's Southend contract manager Neil Hunswick said: "Apcoa's policy is not to tolerate abuse or assault on officers. We follow through to prosecution in as many cases as possible.

"It's unfortunate sometimes people have to leave the job because of it. Three officers involved in the five convictions have left.

"Two of the women who work here have been driven at by cars.

"Another woman had a snooker ball thrown at her by kids. People also throw bottles at us and beer in the summer."

In the most recent case, a man was ordered to pay a £150 fine plus prosecution costs for verbally abusing an enforcement officer.