A British Transport Police officer has said that Steeton and Silsden Railway Station is being monitored for anti-social behaviour.

Sgt Richard Price attended a meeting of Steeton with Eastburn Parish Council last Wednesday and spoke about his powers to police the railway station.

He said: "I have been on the team since last October and when I took over it was reported to me that these lines were very quiet and I am always sceptical when people tell me that.

"But it is true enough - you don't get people reporting many things but that doesn't mean that nothing is going on and the more time I spend here the more cases come up."

He went on to say that residents had complained about crime and bad behaviour around the train station, particularly at weekends.

He said: "There is a problem with anti-social behaviour and urinating on the platform and things like that.

"But to be honest those reports have mainly been over Christmas and since then the problem has mainly been car crime and damage to vehicles.

"As far as anti-social behaviour is concerned, we can write to the youth's parents but you don't seem to get rid of the problem, it just appears to get passed on to another station."

The discussion preceded a report on police crime figures for last month, which showed that reports of vehicle crime had rocketed in the area.

Councillor Hargreaves said: "Every meeting it comes up that we are not getting the police presence in this area and we are not. There used to be plenty of police in this area but there aren't now - they have just taken them away."