Some of York's largest employers are reminding their staff about the new penalties for using a mobile while driving this month.

City of York Council's Road Safety team is working with businesses to remind people of the new rules, which will see anyone caught using a hand-held mobile while driving given three points on their driving licence and a £60 fine.

The campaign, entitled 'pay as you go', will include bus advertising, staff emails and leaflets, warnings on the electronic variable message signs at key routes into the city and information in petrol stations, council receptions and libraries. The ads link in to a national awareness campaign, that includes high profile radio advertising.

Tom Foxton, from the council's Road Safety team, said: "It's simply not possible for most of us to concentrate on two different things at once, which means that people who are holding their mobile phone and chatting away while driving are not giving their full concetration to the road."

The new penalties will come into force on Tuesday, 27 February.