POLICE have vowed to confront people using a popular family picnic spot to have sex with strangers in public.
Residents of Skirlaugh and Coniston have repeatedly complained about lewd activity in three lay-bys off the A165, including one close to the Transpennine Trail.
People also contacted police believing they had seen a sexual assault at the site.
Now, officers from Humberside Police will challenge those caught “dogging” – indulging in sex with strangers in public places – at the sites.
East Riding councillor Matthew Grove said: “These are large groups of people coming together to commit serious acts of public lewdness.
“If you pull up there with your children for a picnic and encounter some of the things that go on there, that is not nice.
“To individuals that witness this, it is very offensive, but to the wider community, it is an embarrassment.
“The community is up in arms about it and we don’t want this in our area.”
The Mid Holderness neighbourhood policing team has now made tackling the problem one of its priorities for the area.
Undercover and uniformed police officers will be used to patrol around the area.
Anyone caught will be challenged and given police leaflets about public sex environments.
They could also face arrest and prosecution for indecent exposure, voyeurism or outraging public decency.
Mr Grove said East Riding council has recently cut back hedges around the lay-bys to make the areas more visible.
“The lay-bys used to have a lot of wildlife around them, but have been having a different kind of wildlife.
“It is a very difficult problem to deal with. We have removed all the undergrowth to make the areas very visible. Most of them have been severely trimmed. However, it tends to move the problem somewhere else.”
He said the police were now responding to the concerns raised by the community.
“Hopefully that will act as a deterrent,” he said.
“The residents don’t like the fact the area is being used for these purposes. It is not something to be proud of.
“We are not talking about individuals causing problems here. These are locations that are marketed on the internet and targeted for undertaking these activities.”
One of the lay-bys includes a picnic area along the Transpennine Trail, a walking route popular with families.
The locations are advertised on “dogging” websites as a place for sexual encounters, along with a car park at Hessle Foreshore.