A CAR park leading to a North Yorkshire beauty spot has been fenced off and padlocked to stop illicit sex games.

The main car park at the 900-acre Bishop Wood, near Selby, is now out of bounds to motorists after being identified as a prime location for kinky sex known as "dogging".

It involves strangers meeting one another for sex, usually in car parks, while others look on.

Inundated with complaints about "doggers", the Forestry Commission has now put up a metal barrier.

The 900-acre Bishop Wood is inhabited by rare plants and wildlife and is popular with walkers and nature lovers.

The car park which has been closed is off the B1222, between Cawood and Wistow. A second car park, near the middle of the forest, remains open .

District councillor John McCartney said: "It's a real shame that a handful of people are ruining it for everybody else.

"It makes you wonder where else this perverted activity is going on."

Cawood resident and former parish council chairman Dave Jones, said: "This so-called dogging is disgusting, and I have to applaud the Forestry Commission for taking swift action."

The commission's area forest manager ,Nick Short, said: "Doggers, as well as a lot of poachers, were using it."

Updated: 10:33 Thursday, June 10, 2004