Anti-social behaviour on rise in National Parks over Bank Holiday

A COMMUNITY centre was broken into, a bus stop was used as a toilet and litter was left scattered everywhere during the warm Bank Holiday weekend in Yorkshire’s two National Parks.

Several shocking instances of anti-social behaviour in the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors have come to light following a three-day weekend in which large crowds gathered at beauty spots to enjoy the sun.

Although lockdown rules have been relaxed to allow individuals and households to travel for exercise, congregating in groups is still forbidden and both National Parks continue to discourage visitors, as do Yorkshire’s seaside towns. Many car parks and public toilets remain shut.

Incidents over the weekend include a gathering of around 100 youths at Richmond Falls on the River Swale. Large amounts of litter were left behind and had to be cleared up by volunteers.

There was also a significant amount of poor behaviour in Goathland in the North York Moors. The community hub was broken into to gain access to the disabled toilets, a bus stop, gardens and the churchyard were used as toilets and detritus including nappies and even underwear was left at Thomason Foss waterfalls.

Award-winning garden designer Chris Myers found that visitors had defecated and left soiled wet wipes outside his home in Gargrave, near Skipton.

And a large group of bikers congregated in Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales, ignoring social distancing guidelines.

Separately, police have described driving standards as “appalling” as motorists and motorcyclists were clocked at speeds up to 130mph over the weekend.

North Yorkshire Police said the fastest speed they clocked over the Bank Holiday weekend was 131mph on the A64, near York.

But they also pointed to more than 50 offences enforced on the B6479 Settle to Ribblehead road, in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, in just an hour-and-a-half.

Officers in Settle clocked cars travelling at almost twice the 30mph speed limit in a residential area. The force announced on Friday it was deploying officers in a high-profile attempt to address speeding and road safety issues as the weekend approached and the lockdown measures eased.