Traffic wardens: we love to hate them because they just will not let us do what we want, will they?

Grown men throw hissy fits and worse because some official in a uniform and a fluorescent jacket has the gall to ticket them for parking in the wrong place. Grown women shout and swear because they’ve been caught out.

What is it about traffic wardens that reduces adults to the level of a two-year-old throwing a tantrum? Actually, it’s far worse than that, because traffic wardens not only suffer verbal abuse but also physical abuse, now so bad in Liverpool, for example, they are to get police minders to protect them.

Traffic wardens are the most hated professional people, topping a list that includes bouncers, estate agents, motorcycle couriers, bus drivers, footballers, telesales reps, PR people, politicians and reality TV show participants. (We totally respect rescue volunteers, nurses, vets, teachers, ambulance drivers, firefighters, care assistants, rugby players and police officers, though.)

But I think traffic wardens should be cherished and valued – and I say this as someone who has received parking tickets for wrongly parking in what I thought was a pay-and-display zone when in fact it was residents only.

I fully accept my punishments because I know how frustrating it is when you pay 80 odd quid a year for the privilege of being able to park on your road only to find all the spaces clogged up with cars that have no right being there.

Just the other day, I watched with a sense of smug satisfaction as a traffic warden slapped a ticket on a builder’s van – one of many – right outside our house who had thought he could get away with no ticket from the machine just 10 steps away.

And I have directed traffic wardens towards the bottom of my road, where selfish and dangerous drivers think nothing of parking their massive great 4x4s on the double yellows outside a popular shop on a T junction, blocking the view of any driver trying to turn left or right out of the road.

Following several near misses, with my children in the car, it is me who endures the wrath of angry swerving drivers rather than the driver of the criminally parked Chelsea tractors.

Traffic wardens suffer the consequences of drivers’ anger at what they believe to be a money-making scam by councils out to impose yet another “tax” on drivers.

And even if that were the case I would still think it’s justified because councils must pay for the parking signs, for painting the yellow signs, for the technology and expertise that designs road systems including parking zones, and for traffic wardens.

In a country with ever increasing numbers of cars and a limited number of legitimate parking spaces, traffic wardens are there to enforce the rules that keep road chaos at bay.

Double and single yellow lines, “no stopping” signs, “no parking” signs – they are not there to look pretty, they are necessary for road safety and keep traffic moving.

And as a driver, a pedestrian and a mother with children who travel in the car, on foot and on bicycles, I want traffic wardens to be vigilant, to punish drivers who block junctions and pavements, who park on zigzags outside schools and who in countless other ways endanger other road users and pedestrians.

Next time you have double parked and blocked access for an ambulance or a fire engine or a police car, imagine if it was you having a heart attack or trapped in a burning house or you facing an intruder in your house. Poor parking, even for a minute, can mean life or death for someone.

The irony is that the drivers who think nothing of parking on double yellows when it suits them are the very same people who turn into road ragers when it’s their turn to sit in an unmoving queue of traffic caused by someone else doing exactly that.

It is the same logic applied by those who call the police unspeakable names and criticise them as agents of a repressive regime. Yet when they are in danger, who do they expect to come to their rescue? Yes, the police.