PARKING wardens concerned at a poll that put them at the top of hated professions can take heart.

Harrogate Borough councillor Julian Sturdy said council employees who enforced parking controls were often praised.

He said: "It is not often councils get letters of thanks but, just recently, there has been a flurry regarding our parking attendants, including one who thanked them in verse, saying he was wrong and they were right.

"We have also had letters praising our staff for helping victims of accidents and for finding anything from lost keys to lost diamonds."

Coun Sturdy said the latest was about a lost mother. He said: "A resident of Knaresborough has written to thank the Jubilee Car Park staff, in Harrogate, following a shopping trip at Christmas when, not only did she mislay her keys but, in the confusion and panic, lost her mother.

"Her letter indicated our staff could not have been more helpful in locating both. Of course, they are there to do a job but many of them go beyond the call of their official duty."