City parking attendants have been issued with diaries to keep notes of the attacks they suffer from angry motorists.

Brighton and Hove City Council is refusing to discuss details of the journals, revealing only that they are being kept to preserve an accurate record in case of future court action.

Numerous assaults have been directed at parking attendants, ranging from verbal abuse and spitting to more violent attacks, since NCP was awarded the contract on July 16.

One attendant was chased down the street by a woman wielding a hammer, another was punched in the face by a drunk and two women traffic wardens have been attacked.

Another attendant was punched by a group of young boys when she put a parking ticket on the car of one of their fathers.

There are also two cases before the courts.

A council spokeswoman said: "The attendants are keeping a note of events for operational reasons so there's a record if anything comes to court.

"The parking manager does not want to reveal their contents because there is concern it could lead to copycat incidents.

"The diaries will be used for the attendants' own purposes and to allow managers to keep tabs on the situation and ensure there's full monitoring."

A number of the new recruits dropped out in the first two weeks of the new regime taking over but the spokeswoman said the service had a full team of 60 wardens.

She added: "A few left in the early stages, which is what we'd expect when a lot of people start a new job for the first time.

"We've not had any problems recruiting replacements and we're now regularly receiving applications from people."

Gavin Manger, spokesman for NCP, said: "Our staff turnover is in line with any operation of this nature.

"We do not condone violence against our staff and make every effort to make their environment safe."