York's new traffic wardens will "get tough" on Sunday when they start handing out penalties instead of warnings for parking on yellow lines.

Since the new City of York Council-run service began on October 8, the wardens have been giving out warning notices telling illegally parked drivers they could face a £40 fine.

The "honeymoon period" is intended to warn drivers that places they have previously parked without problems will become no-go areas. But parking services manager Bill Bird said they had already caused a "significant improvement".

The service has taken over supervising the on-street rules since responsibility was switched from the police and their traffic wardens to the council.

Mr Bird said before the change they had 20 attendants looking after car parks, and had now taken on an extra eight, compared with the nine wardens previously available at full strength.

They also had vehicles, which meant they were reaching places like Acomb and Wigginton, which had not previously been patrolled.

They had already issued about 3,000 warnings, which had provoked an occasionally angry reaction from motorists who had previously parked on yellow lines without a ticket.

Mr Bird said: "We have had many inquiries, a lot of motorists are very unhappy that they have received those warning notices.

"But, in the main, when we have explained the reason why the notice was issued, in most cases I won't say they have gone away happy, but at least they have gone away fully understanding why they were issued with that notice."

He added: "Our role in life is to keep the traffic flowing freely in York."

The wardens had been on a training course which stressed that they were ambassadors for York as well as parking attendants. They were also helping prevent crime by looking out for insecure or vulnerable cars.

A City of York Council spokesman said there had been no further incidents at the automatic bollard in Stonebow, where a taxi driver bumped his head after his vehicle collided with it on Wednesday.

He added they would monitor the situation there, and continue to have a staff member overseeing it for a short time until residents got used to it.