A YORK playground has been given a spruce-up by offenders in a graffiti-busting exercise organised by local councillors.

Residents in the Holgate area appealed for assistance after hearing about a similar clean-up drive elsewhere in the ward, which led to a team ordered to do community payback work by the courts being set the task.

They painted over ugly slogans daubed along the walls of the playground in Cleveland Street and tidied it up, following the success of an initiative in nearby Cinder Lane.

James Alexander one of Labour’s candidates for the ward at next month’s local elections and the leader of the party’s City of York Council group, said: “Residents contacted local councillors asking for the playground to get similar treatment, and this has also been successful.

“If Labour wins control of the council next month, I want to see more community payback schemes across York.”