Yobs who hurl missiles at passing boats from York's new Millennium Bridge will soon be captured on camera.

Closed circuit television cameras are set to be installed in the area by the end of June, at a cost of £26,000.

The spy-in-the-sky cannot come soon enough for people travelling along the river under the bridge.

The Evening Press reported last week how clods of earth had been thrown at a cruise boat and had hit an elderly woman on the head.

Now the woman's son has contacted the paper to say there could have been serious consequences if a baby or small child had been struck instead, or if the clod had contained a stone.

Gary Horwell said his 66-year-old mother had told him what had happened with some amazement at the behaviour of "kids today".

He said: "However, as a caring mother, her immediate thoughts were for her granddaughter sitting next to her."

In another separate incident, a youth threw a stone at a different cruise boat last weekend, hitting the side of the wheelhouse.

Now the boat, run by Castle Line of York, is to have a canopy erected over the top deck - mainly to defend passengers from bad weather but also to protect them from risk of further missiles.

Castle Line partner and skipper Paul Eckart said the bridge had become a congregating point for groups of youngsters, with things being thrown not only from the structure but also from the riverbanks.

A council spokeswoman said that the Millennium Bridge Trust had allocated funding for the installation of CCTV cameras in the area.

"However this money wasn't sufficient to carry out the project

and the council has found additional funds of £11,000 to enable the scheme to go ahead, taking the total project cost to £26,000."

She said the council had appointed a contractor but they were no

longer able to do the work.

Now the authority was going through the tendering process to appoint another contractor, with the work beginning as soon as possible and planned to be completed by the end of June.

"The system will then be linked to the police camera network."

Updated: 10:26 Wednesday, April 25, 2001