PARKING wardens across East Lancashire are facing a daily battle with abusive and violent drivers angry at getting fined, after 36 incidents in just eight months.

Since councils in the area took over control of parking regulations last autumn, wardens have been punched, hit by rocks, grabbed by the throat and suffered serious verbal attacks.

The true figure is believed to be even higher as Burnley Council has so far failed to respond to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph's request for information.

And parking bosses fear staff are failing to report minor incidents because they happen so often.

They are now seeking police advice on collecting evidence after it was revealed only three cases had led to legal action.

NCP -- the company which is employed by Hyndburn, Rossendale, Burnley and Pendle councils to provide wardens on its streets -- is preparing to give staff DNA "spit kits" to help identify some of the culprits.

Blackburn with Darwen Council, which employs its own 20-strong team of wardens, has also vowed to work more closely with police to protect staff.

Critics of the council clamp-down on parking -- which has resulted in more than £1million in fines in just six months -- claim councils have to take some of the blame for the attacks.

l Blackburn with Darwen - whose wardens took the streets in October - have recorded six physical assaults and 15 other incidents

l In Rossendale, four had been recorded by wardens, including the tyres on an NCP vehicle being let down in Stacksteads, rocks being thrown at a warden's head in Rawtenstall, a driver slapping and punching a warden in Waterfoot and a warden grabbed by the throat in Haslingden

l In Pendle, wardens have reported three incidents of verbal abuse and threats of assault, and two cases of actual assault -- one of which resulted in the police charging a driver and another cautioned. In total, eight cases have been reported

l Hyndburn Council has had two cases reported to them

l Ribble Valley, which also employs its own wardens, has had four reported incidents, none of which were physcial.

Paul Timson of Ribble Valley Council said: "There are also the almost daily comment from some members of the public on the lines of 'get a proper job', 'sad git', some swearing and other comments on a similar theme.

"Unfortunately the frequency of these comments appears to have become considered routine within a days work and are no longer reported."

Prior to last autumn, on-street parking enforcement was carried out by the police, but at times there were as few as three traffic wardens for the whole of East Lancashire.

Councils get to keep the money made from fines, which start at £30 each, and this has prompted claims that the scheme is just about making money.

A spokesman for the British Parking Association, made up of councils and parking firms, said: "We are now lobbying the Government to clamp down on this, to make it an offence to attack a warden int he same way it is to attack a police officer."