THE mayor of a North Yorkshire town has heralded the achievements of police officers and the community in combating a plague of vandalism which was making residents lives a misery.

In January, The Press reported how Tadcaster had been rocked by a spate of fires, smashed windows and graffiti, with the then mayor, Richard Sweeting, making a desperate plea to residents to report the activities of yobs in the town.

But Margaret Middlemiss, the new mayor of Tadcaster, today said it was largely thanks to a police initiative over the last six months that Tadcaster had seen a reduction in vandalism.

She said: "I am absolutely delighted. My impression is that the vandalism has reduced.

"Usually, a lot of residents come to meetings and complain about it voraciously, but they don't seem to have been doing that recently."

She said Inspector Mark Khan, now of York Police, had organised various actions in a bid to resolve the vandalism problems.

She said the inspector "flooded the town's vandalism hotspots", such as around the pubs, with police on selected evenings in an attempt to crackdown on the issue.

She said that after brick-throwing vandals broke dozens of panes of glass in houses in Wharf Bank Terrace, Insp Khan managed to deter yobs from further acts of vandalism by stationing himself at one of the properties one Friday evening. She said: "I do think the police action has been very helpful - it seems to have deterred a lot of the vandalism."

She said a minority of young people in the town were behind the vandalism and that she feared it could be the calm before the storm with the school holidays approaching, but that she hoped the problem would continue to decrease.

She said a social services report published two years ago had revealed there was a variety of activities for youngsters in the town and that the majority of them were law-abiding.

She said extra lighting in the town, as well as an additional CCTV camera - both of which have been installed in the last year - would have also contributed to the decrease in vandalism.

She thanked the police, council and community for their hard work in combating the problem.

If you would like to help in the fight against vandalism in Tadcaster, the next joint action group meeting will be at the beginning of August, at the Riley-Smith Hall, in Westgate.

For further details, phone Tadcaster Town Council, on 01937 834113.