A PUBLIC meeting will next month discuss the problems caused by youngsters riding mini-motos around a York estate.

The next Bell Farm Residents Association meeting will be thrown open to all local people to give them a chance to come along and raise their concerns.

Organisers are hoping a local police officer will be able to attend the meeting, which is due to take place at 6.30pm on Tuesday, February 6, in the area's social hall.

Russell Trewartha, of City of York Council's Neighbourhood Pride unit, said mini motorbikes were intended to be ridden on private land, and it was an offence for them to be ridden on the public highway.

"There has been a problem with them in various areas of the city," he said.

The Press reported last summer how police were launching a crackdown on the "increasing menace" of the mini moto, warning that bikes being ridden illegally would be seized and crushed.

The campaign was part of a national Home Office Respect Mini Moto Summer Crackdown, which aimed to make parents and young people aware of the law.

Home Secretary John Reid said mini moto misuse was dangerous and could cause an unnecessary nuisance to communities.

But youngsters in Tang Hall, York, later pleaded to be given somewhere to take their motos, claiming they had nowhere to go where they could legally ride them.