ROWDY, drunken behaviour is driving families away from York city centre on Saturday afternoons, says North Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner Julia Mulligan. Nothing new there. What is alarming is the potential scale of the problem.

Ms Mulligan says up to a fifth of people who would otherwise consider coming to York are not doing so because of the city’s reputation for drunken fights and out-of-control hen and stag parties.

We don’t know how she has arrived at that figure, but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that on Saturdays especially the centre of York is becoming a no-go area for families with children.

For Andy Stone, from Holgate, the tipping point came when his 15-year-old daughter witnessed a drunken fight in Duncombe Place. “From now on, my wife and I have said that if she wants to go into the city centre... she should go in on a Sunday instead, when behaviour is better,” he said.

It is desperately sad that our city is being ruined by this kind of yobbishness. Sadly, police cuts mean that North Yorkshire Police simply don’t have the resources to mount constant high-visibility patrols.

As we reported on Friday, however, local businesses have come up with an idea that might help.

Andrew Lowson, boss of the new York Business Improvement District (BID), says his organisation plans to recruit teams of people to patrol the city.

The four ‘York Greeters’ starting today won’t attempt to tackle rowdy behaviour. They will simply be friendly faces welcoming visitors to York.

But there are also plans later this year to recruit a team of BID Rangers who will patrol on Friday and Saturdays to keep an eye out for trouble and liaise with police. They may even have some powers of confiscation.

We’re glad to see businesses taking such an initiative. The city needs to do something.