York's traffic wardens were today told their jobs will be abolished from October 8.

Senior traffic warden, John Mackfall, said their work would be carried out by council wardens and regular police officers after City of York Council took control of on-street parking and patrolling yellow lines.

He added that although parking offences had been decriminalised in other areas, he believed York would be the first place in England to completely abolish traffic wardens.

Mr Mackfall, who is also chairman of the public service union Unison for North Yorkshire Police support staff, said the city's nine wardens would technically be redundant, but would be told they had three "choices".

The first was redeployment within the police, where he said there were about 70 vacancies.

"I'm hoping they will all be redeployed. I can't guarantee that, obviously, but I would like to think they would be. Some of them have 15 years loyal service," he said.

Some may be offered jobs with the council, but there was no guarantee of that, and it could entail a significant drop in wages. The third choice was redundancy.

Mr Mackfall said North Yorkshire's Chief Constable, David Kenworthy, could have retained traffic wardens in York for duties which are not being transferred to the council.

Wardens did a lot of work on traffic control, for example during parades or race days - tasks which would fall to police officers.

He was concerned that council wardens may not have sufficient training or protection - such as stab-proof vests - to deal with a potentially confrontational role.

Claire Bailey, the Unison convenor for the council's wardens, said their biggest concern was health and safety, but added: "I'm aware the management are preparing a training programme. Part of that is dealing with confrontational situations."

North Yorkshire Police spokesman, Chief Inspector Ron Johnson, said the force supported the council's move to take over parking duties.

He added: "Should that happen, then the city's nine traffic wardens currently employed by North Yorkshire Police would be made redundant.

"However, should that occur, every effort will be made to redeploy all those concerned in other posts within our organisation, should they so wish.

"Already some of the traffic wardens have expressed an interest in other posts in York, and because of the boundary and structure review there are current vacancies and we are actively recruiting."

A council spokesman said: "We are hoping to take on these new responsibilities from October and working towards that, including finalising the details, at the moment.

"I'm sure that issues such as training and security will be high on the agenda."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.