York residents are helping to keep neighbourhoods safe by supporting City of York Council's community ranger service.

Designed to give a reassuring presence for residents, the rangers are being funded by ward committees, following suggestions from local people. They operate across nine areas of the city, patrolling the streets and working with residents and police to help keep areas safe.

Zoe Burns, City of York Council's head of neighbourhood management, said: "This is a great example of a scheme which has been requested by residents and to which residents can add value by giving local information. People can raise local issues at ward committee meetings or contact our response line direct on our free phone number."

The community rangers carry out two 30-minute patrols between 5pm and midnight. Marked patrol vehicles are fitted with infra-red CCTV camera so that incidents can be recorded and the footage passed to the police or the council for use as evidence. As well as helping to make people feel safer, the community rangers tackle low level crime and anti-social behaviour. The cost of the service depends on the minimum number of wards that wish to benefit from it, but currently stands at just £12 per hour.

The more information the rangers receive, the more effective the service is. Residents living in the nine wards in which the community rangers operate can contact the service direct on the free phone 0800 783 7537.

The initiative is part of City of York Council's Feeling and Being Safe in York campaign, which is one of the York Neighbourhood Pride campaigns, a series of enforcement and awareness campaigns which have been running since October 2006. The Feeling and Being Safe in York campaign is all about crime and community safety and tackles issues of personal safety, property safety and fear of crime, as well as enforcement activity.

Zoe said: "One of the aims of the campaign is to raise awareness of the simple things that people can do to improve their personal safety. We are working with all our partners in community safety over the next few months to help make York and safer place for people to live and work."

The community ranger service is currently provided by Group Response and the contract is managed by the council's neighbourhood management unit in partnership with North Yorkshire Police and Safer York Partnership. It operates in the following nine wards across the city:

Acomb
Dringhouses and Woodthorpe
Derwent, Heworth Without and Osbaldwick
Fishergate
Haxby and Wigginton
Holgate
Hull Road
Huntington and New Earswick
Westfield.