Roadworkers in Southampton are set to wear body-worn cameras after a rise in verbal and physical abuse from motorists.

As reported, half of staff working for Balfour Beatty Living Places have received abuse in the last 12 months according to Southampton City Council with 58 per cent having been abused monthly.

Brian Hammersley, contract director at Balfour Beatty said: “We’re sending a message to the team that this isn’t behaviour we accept.

“If a member of staff is subjected to roadworker abuse, we encourage them to report it.”

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Speaking on the implementation of body-worn cameras, he added: “We’re deploying body-worn CCTV cameras to all our frontline workforce and we’re also upping the amount of site-based CCTV so we’re capturing any instances that do take place on site.

“We can then report this evidence to the police if we need to.”

Councillor Eamonn Keogh, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport commented: “We as a council fully support a zero-tolerance policy towards stopping any abuse towards all roadworkers and frontline workers.”