A council has made a u-turn on rules affecting its traffic wardens after claiming they could park “wherever they need to” to carry out their duties.

East Herts Council initially defended a traffic warden who parked on zig-zag lines approaching a zebra crossing – a no-parking controlled area - on Stevenage High Street, to ticket a car parked in a taxi bay.

But after seeing our report online on the issue, the authority changed tack, stating their ‘civil enforcement officers’ cannot park on legally defined approaches to pedestrian crossings, except outside schools.

A spokesman said the officer involved has been asked for a statement explaining his conduct and may be disciplined.