POLICE in Selby collected nearly £500 in unpaid fines and issued five fixed penalty notices during a day of action in the town.

Operation Birch, which has been running in the district since June, has already led to a number of arrests across the region, for various crimes, including driving and road traffic offences, with the aim of reducing crime and fear of crime in the district.

Yesterday’s action included litter picking and grafitti removal in Carlton and Drax, and although no arrests were made, £475 of unpaid fines were collected, and road policing units stopped 27 vehicles seizing one car after the owner had no insurance and issuing five fixed penalty notices for offences, including driving without a seatbelt.

Sergeant Jackie Booth, of Selby Safer Neighbourhoods Team, said: “The day was successful with all the agencies involved working together and hopefully we can build on it for the future.”

Iain Walker, of the North Yorkshire Justice Service, travelled to a pair of sites with two young offenders given litter clear-up duties by magistrates.

He said: “It benefits the young people themselves, and means they invest in the local area and feel part of it.

“Young people are quite badly demonised in some respects, and do feel excluded, so if they feel they have made a difference and take pride in it.”

Under the operation’s aim to strengthen bonds between agencies including the police, the district and county councils and the community, representatives from all agencies visited travellers' sites at Burn and Carlton, to address any issues the residents had. As a result, a number of smoke alarms were issued to residents at the Burn site, and plans were discussed to increase education facilities for adults and children in the area.

Earlier in the summer-long campaign, one man was arrested and six vehicles were seized under Operation Birch, which is run by North Yorkshire Police in Selby with the Environment Agency and HMRC, and Trading Standards officers also carried out a number of test purchases at a car boot sale in Whitley.

Teams from the police Automatic Number Plate Recognition service were expected to be in place throughout the night, to monitor for vehicles with outstanding warrants and other traffic offences.