A NEW device is being used by parking attendants across the county to protect them from aggravated drivers.

Until July this year the police were responsible for enforcing parking regulations, but in a bid to free up police time the Government has passed responsibility onto local authorities.

Dorset County Council has taken over control in the majority of the county, except in Weymouth and Portland where the borough council chose to take it on.

Now the 14 attendants employed by the county council have been equipped with new mobile phones which not only record anything the aggressor says so they can't later deny it, but also has an SOS button to get immediate help to the attendant.

Dorset's parking services manager Bernadette Wallis said: "The new Cybertrak mobile phones provide both staff safety and the communications functions that we need.

"The parking attendants patrol nearly the whole of Dorset and are often miles away from their headquarters in remote rural areas.

"The staff get great comfort from knowing that when they push the red button someone will instantly be listening and a call is put out to bring them help.

"Any incident is recorded as it happens so an aggressor can't deny what was said."

When the red SOS button is pressed emergency call handlers on the other end of the line are able to pinpoint exactly where the attendant is via a satellite link.

They can then contact the council immediately to make sure assistance is sent to the trouble spot and the police can be called if necessary.

Car parks manager for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council Derek Whittaker said: "Our attendants don't have the same mobile phones as Dorset county parking attendants, though they do all have ordinary mobile phones.

"But it is a different set-up. Weymouth and Portland are very well covered by CCTV and walkie-talkies. But we are always looking at things like that and if we feel we need something similar then we can look into it further."