A CYCLIST was arrested and dozens more were given advice as part of a security crackdown in York.

York Press:

Members of North Yorkshire Police’s city centre team joined with Eboracum Security, BID Rangers, York Cycle Campaign, Cycle UK, Safer York Partnership, neighbourhood enforcement officers, Make It York, University of York security and York Business Against Crime, as part of the event on Friday morning.

Teams were posted by cycle racks in York city centre, and spoke to cyclists about how best to secure their bikes, the right and wrong kinds of locks to use, the best places to chain them up, and the benefits of having their cycles and other property marked and registered on the national Immobilise database.

Inspector Andy Godfrey said he hoped that by encouraging cyclists to make bike theft more difficult, thieves would be put off coming to the city centre.

He said: “In a city like York, one or two people committing this kind of crime [bike theft], can make a big impact on statistics.

“We had a bit of a blip towards the end of the summer, but in the last few months we’ve had three people arrested who weren’t from York with bikes or bike parts and they were taken to court and one local male who was really prolific.”

York Press:

PCSO Rich Bolland said the reaction from cyclists had been positive, and there were both good and bad examples of secure bikes at the racks around the city.

York Press:

He said cycles with poor-quality locks were likely to be targeted more often as the cheapest locks were easier to break, and advised using two locks - ideally a ‘D-Lock’ and a thicker chain - to secure two separate parts of the bike to racks, and make them more difficult to steal.

North Yorkshire Police will be in St Helen’s Square on Saturday (December 15) from 1pm-5pm with dot peen kits, to securely mark people’s property - including bikes - for free.