TRAVELLERS’ site near Selby could see an increase in children’s and adult education facilities, following discussions with the council and other agencies.

The discussions took place as part of Operation Birch, the summer-long multi-agency initiative run by North Yorkshire Police, with the Environment Agency, the town, district and county councils.

Operation Birch was launched earlier this year with the aim of strengthening links between the agencies and the communities, with representatives a visiting travellers’ site at Burn and Carlton this week to improve relationships with the residents.

PC Dave White, of Selby Police, visited the site on Wednesday and said: “Bringing children’s, adult and pre-school education to the travellers’ site is something the residents want, but it’s just ideas at the moment.

“In an ideal world, that is what we’d like to do, so we’re going to take this on to discuss funding with multiple agencies and see how we can take this forward.”

Representatives from North Yorkshire County Council visit the site on a regular basis with activities for children, but the various agencies hope to build on and improve relationships with residents, and visited the site to discuss potential plans for the future.

On Wednesday, the latest day of action under Operation Birch saw hundreds of pounds worth of unpaid fines collected, a machete and four throwing knives handed in to police as part of a knife amnesty, and litter and grafitti clean-ups taking place around the district.

When council workers could not remove grafitti from a Carlton resident’s wall without damaging the rendering, Selby District Council agreed to have Community Payback services repaint the entire surface.

A spokesman for Selby District Council said: “This demonstrates what a difference we can make by working closely together to tackle the issues that really matter to people living in our area.

“Working together like this means we can pool resources and really concentrate efforts on a particular area. Dealing with issues such as graffiti can make a very real difference, by helping to protect against antisocial behaviour and supporting people to feel safe and secure.”