HAMPDEN UPROAR

Parking wardens to strike on day of England clash

- MARK McGIVERN

STRIKING parking wardens are threatening to bring chaos to Scotland's looming Hampden clash with the Auld Enemy.

Union bosses are warning that the sold-out match on September 12 could see gridlock on roads around the National Stadium due to illegally parked cars blocking access roads.

Parking enforcers working for Glasgow City Council will not ticket or arrange to tow cars in the hours before the game as part of industrial action over pay.

The streets around Mount Florida, in the south of the city, are notoriously congested before big games and the GMB union claims the strike threatens to slow or halt supporters' buses and fans arriving by car.

GMB Scotland said the midweek game with England - to mark the 150th anniversary of the first match between the two countries - is being targeted to highlight the difference in the pay offer made to council colleagues south of the Border.

Keir Greenaway, the union's senior organiser in public services, said: "The lowest-paid council workers in England have been offered a pay rise many hundreds of pounds more than staff doing the same job in Scotland.