Police have launched an operation to tackle anti-social behaviour caused by young people arriving in a North Yorkshire town by train from Middlesbrough.
North Yorkshire Council’s Richmond area committee heard today (MONDAY) that Great Ayton had seen an increase in anti-social behaviour by young visitors.
North Yorkshire Police has launched Operation Waterfall to tackle the problem.
Councillor Heather Moorhouse, who represents the Great Ayton division, said: “Here in Great Ayton, there’s a great upsurge of anti-social behaviour, which in every village, every town, can be different. In Great Ayton, it’s probably to do with young people.
“We are very focused on trying to get people out into the countryside, young people, to enjoy what we’ve got and see what the national parks have to offer.
“But sadly some of them from Middlesbrough are coming in on the Esk Valley Line into Great Ayton and even coming off the train there’s a few issues. Some of them haven’t paid for the fare.”
Inspector Rory Sadler, neighbourhood policing inspector for the Hambleton area, said extra officers had been deployed in Great Ayton which had led to an increase in reports due to the increased visibility of officers.
But he said there had also been an increase in incidents.
He added: “It’s youths coming on the train from Middlesbrough. They also go to other areas outside of North Yorkshire as well as coming to us.
“British Transport Police work with us closely and they’re on the trains as well.
“We’ve start going to the train station on days when we expect it to be busy and we use our body cams and get names of people coming off.
“If incidents do happen, we’ve got CCTV footage and we’re able to identify them quickly.”
The meeting heard that while permanent CCTV cameras were difficult to install in the town due to the infrastructure, the community safety partnership was considering setting up a temporary camera in the town for the summer months.
Dispersal orders had been authorised to tackle problems
Some youths have already been identified and issued with official warnings or orders, the meeting was told.
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