Village shopkeeper threatened with arrest for tipping off customers about traffic wardens

For shopkeeper Alma Floyd, it was all part of the service.

If she spotted traffic officials ticketing cars outside her dairy shop she would alert customers so they could avoid a penalty.

But her instincts to keep others out of trouble have brought the weight of the law down on her.

Police have warned her she is interfering with the officers 'in their line of duty' and is risking prosecution.

Mrs Floyd, 60, says a parking crackdown outside her shop in Cheddar, Somerset, is destroying her business.

Highnam's Dairy has been a village landmark since the 1940s and customers have pulled up on the pavement outside for years without a problem.

But in February they were banned by police, who claimed the practice was a danger to the public.

Since then police community support officers have patrolled the area and ticketed any cars parked there.

Residents passed a vote of no confidence in the PCSOs at a recent parish council meeting, fearing the effect on tourism and trade.

Mrs Floyd said: 'Ever since the new parking rules were introduced we have seen a slump in trade.

Landmark: But parking ban has hammered trade at the dairy shop

'It means passing motorists have nowhere to park, and they don't come in. So I've been looking out for the officers whenever they come near  -  it's the only thing I can do.'

Mrs Floyd, who has run the shop with her husband John, 65, for 12 years, said she was warned she could risk arrest last week, after pleading with a PCSO not to give a ticket to a customer.

She said: 'I rushed out to say "Don't book them, they're only here for a few minutes", but they wouldn't listen and it led to an argument.

'I'm not proud of my actions, but I found it extremely difficult not to raise my voice, and I told them to b****r off. The following day a police sergeant appeared at the door and warned me that I could be arrested if I interfered with PCSOs in the line of duty.

'It's very upsetting, because we'll lose our trade as well as our regular customers.'

Empty streets: Outside Highnam's Dairy 

Sean Hockley, who owns a flooring shop in Cheddar, said: 'We've had to move out of the High Street because of delivery drivers getting hassle, staff getting hassle, everyone getting hassle.'

Superintendent Gary Davies, from Avon and Somerset Police, said residents who did not comply with the new rules could face arrest.

He said: 'Because emotions have got so high, the local sergeant's taken it upon himself to warn people they can't take the law into their own hands.

'This issue has the full support of a range of people in Cheddar who want to solve the problems there.'

The force denied any tickets had been issued directly outside Mrs Floyd's store or that she had been threatened with arrest  -  but said she was 'spoken-to' by the neighbourhood sergeant.