A city is awarding its best traffic wardens lunches and time off for issuing more parking tickets with increased accuracy, politeness, and getting compliments from the public, it emerged today.

Bristol City Council is rewarding the highest scoring teams and individuals, but says the scheme is really about cutting down the number of contested tickets.

Leading performers recieve a £50 buffet and are allowed to go home early. The "highest scoring" warden is also rewarded with a free pen, according to a leaked memo.

The 2005 Traffic Wardens and Parking Attendants Bill states that "no payment may be made to a traffic warden or parking attendant, or any person responsible for traffic wardens or parking attendants, which is related to the number or value of fixed penalty notices issued".

But Bristol City Council is not giving out cash bonuses. Instead it operate the free-lunch scheme and allows the most efficient to clock off early.

The number of tickets issued is not the sole factor in deciding which the best wardens and anyone dishing out hundreds of incorrect tickets could not win, the authority said.

In fact, the aim is to increase accuracy and cut the number of cases of disputed tickets being overturned on appeal.

Part of the memo leaked to the Bristol Evening Post, and today verified by the council, reads: "The winning team each month will have some lunch laid on for them by caterers and leave early on that day.

"The team scores are not solely based on the amount of PCNs (Penalty Charge Notices) issued, but also the amount that are paid. Also when comments and letters of thanks made from departments and MOP (members of the public) are received.

"The team scores are based on the average for the overall team. Not solely on individuals. A pen will be given to the highest scoring individual."

Kieran Battles, of Bristol organisation Keep Parking Free, told the Post: "I'm wholly unsurprised and very disappointed.

"They are playing by the rules, but not by the morals. There's no such thing as a free lunch - and in this instances it's the Bristol tax payer who is paying for it."

But council spokeswoman Kate Hartas stressed that scores did not depend solely on the number of tickets issued but "compliments, courtesy, and punctuality" were also taken into consideration.

She said: "The modest scheme is an incentive to issue good quality PCNs. This helps avoid motorists potentially being issued with a PCN that they wish to challenge.

"The appeal process is expensive, and incorrectly-issued tickets are damaging to our relationship with the public. This is why we do not offer incentives for numbers of tickets alone.

"The scheme is not designed to increase the number of tickets issued. The finger buffet lunch - £50 for the entire group - held at our operational base, is a working lunch where issues such as team morale and service improvements are discussed.

"The scheme is designed to encourage all staff to be consistent in their decisions and to issue tickets only where they feel confident the rules apply."

The council employs 45 traffic wardens, who issued 43,106 tickets in 2008/9, raising £1,294,447 in revenue which was re-invested in transport.