IT’S exactly 50 years since Basildon got its first ever traffic warden.
The woman for the job was Betty Morriss and she started work on June 29, 1970. It wasn’t long before more wardens were springing up across Basildon and Southend.
Traffic wardens had been around in the UK since the 1960s when the first batch of uniformed parking enforcement officers marched onto the streets of Westminster.
The first penalty charge notice ever issued in England was given to a doctor who was answering an emergency call to help a heart attack victim in a West End hotel.
There was such a public outcry over the incident that he was eventually let off the £2 fine.
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