Police will consider prosecuting anyone publishing pictures, names and addresses of parking attendants.

The warning came after protesters threatened to put wardens' details on the internet and hoped shops and restaurants would refuse to serve them.

Superintendent Graham Cox, second-in-command of Brighton police, said the idea was "totally out of order".

He said: "If they are serious then they are risking breaching the stalking laws. These inflammatory comments are irresponsible and people need to think carefully.

"There is a proper appeals procedure for motorists who feel they have a legitimate objection to the tickets they have received."

The threats to reveal the identities of Brighton and Hove's parking attendants on the internet have been condemned by trade union leaders, civil rights groups and motoring organisations.

We revealed a group called the British Association of Motorists planned to post names, addresses and pictures of the city's wardens on a web site in the hope they would be ostracised.

Regional representative John Gallagher said he wanted to see the parking attendants barred from shops and restaurants in the city until Brighton and Hove City Council rethought its parking strategy.

Mr Gallagher said he had pictures and addresses of some 37 traffic wardens in the city, out of a total of 80.

The move has provoked outrage from all quarters, with council leader Ken Bodfish labelling it "intimidation of the worst kind".

Coun Bodfish has now been joined by Teana Ashley, the senior regional officer for the public services trade union Unison.

She said: "If anything like this occurred and affected our members we would get legal advice to see if it breached the Human Rights Act or the Data Protection Act.

"We would say that this is unreasonable and unbalanced behaviour."

Mary Cunneen, a director of human rights organisation Liberty, said traffic wardens did not have any real protections in law at the moment but "probably should have".