A NEW policing scheme has seen more than a dozen people arrested in York city centre over issues raised by the local community.

Operation Fisherman is a partnership between North Yorkshire Police and York BID's Street Rangers, which saw foot patrols throughout the city centre.

The operation started as a two-week trial to patrol hot-spot areas and tackle community concerns, and is expected to continue throughout the rest of the year, and resulted in ten people stopped and searched under the Misuse of Drugs Act, and more than a dozen arrests for offences including drunk and disorderly, possession of drugs, and failure to attend court.

Inspector Andy Godfrey said: "We acted on information from local businesses, who reported concerns about issues linked to drug use in parts of the city centre. Officers have been targeting those areas with highly-visible, proactive patrols, and dealing robustly with any issues.

"Since the start of this operation, we have had very positive feedback from businesses in the city centre, reporting a reduction in anti-social behaviour. The message is clearly getting through that anti-social behaviour and the use of illegal drugs is not acceptable in our city centre. We will also continue to work with our partners to make sure anyone that needs help is signposted to the most appropriate support."

Andrew Lowson, executive director of the York BID, said: The Rangers patrol the streets of York every day because we take anti-social behaviour involving drugs and alcohol extremely seriously and want to do our part to reduce the impact for the benefit of York’s residents and visitors.

"One of the lesser-known BID roles is to lobby key agencies on behalf of the business community we serve, and this recent Police operation is an example of the fantastic partnership we’ve built with North Yorkshire Police and City of York Council."

Concerns about issues in the city centre can be reported on 101 or SNAYorkcity@NorthYorkshire.pnn.police.uk