Traffic wardens could be phased out under new plans expected to be announced by the Home Secretary.
Theresa May is to set out a proposal to replace them with an army of unpaid police volunteers, according to reports.
The formal role of traffic warden is expected to be abolished as part of a plan that will see unpaid police volunteers' powers extended to issuing fixed-penalty notices, and detaining suspects for up to 30 minutes while a uniformed constable arrives.
The plan will be included as part of changes to the Home Secretary's policing and crime bill, aimed at freeing up uniformed police officers' time.
Mrs May said: “We want to help forces to create a more flexible workforce, bring in new skills and free up officers’ time to focus on the jobs only they can carry out.
"At the same time, we want to encourage those with skills in particular demand, such as those with specialist IT or accountancy skills, to work alongside police officers to investigate cyber or financial crime, and help officers and staff fight crime more widely.”
Numbers of wardens have been falling since the decriminalisation of parking enforcement in the 1990’s.
In 2007, there were 1000 traffic wardens, but that has been slashed to just 18 as they were replaced by staff working for private firms.
Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham said: “The simple truth is that communities can’t rely on a part-time police force. We have already seen thousands of police and civilian jobs lost and there are more on the way.”
Traffic wardens were introduced in 1961 to the capital as help for the public to find parking spaces.
