POLICE are failing to enforce legislation on child car booster seats because of practical difficulties with the law, The Northern Echo has learnt.

A snapshot survey has revealed that only two fixed penalty notices have been issued to drivers in the region since a change in the law more than three months ago.

Since September 18, children have been required to use booster seats if they are under 12 years old and less than 135cm (4ft 5in) tall in a move that was hoped to prevent about 2,000 accident injuries a year.

Parents rushed to buy the seats after being threatened with a £30 minimum on-the-spot fine by police, or a maximum fine of £500 if convicted in court. But last night police admitted they were not using the powers available to them because of the problems they face in enforcing the law.

Inspector John Snowball, of Durham Police's road traffic unit, said: "We recognise there are difficulties in relation to this legislation with regard to the practicalities of assessing the height and age of young passengers and are considering how best this can be done.

"However, seatbelts save lives and we advise drivers to ensure children travelling with them are wearing either a seatbelt or another type of restraint appropriate for their age and size."

A Durham Police spokeswoman said: "As far as we are aware, no fixed penalty notices have yet been handed out and at the moment we are concentrating on issuing advice to people.

"However, we hope to step up our efforts with regards to this after the turn of the year."

North Yorkshire Police said it had also yet to issue any fixed penalty tickets.

A spokesman said police had difficulty in measuring children's heights.

He said: "At the moment there are problems with the implementation of this in relation to obtaining ages and heights of the individuals concerned.

"We are looking to resolve them, but until then we are using the powers we already have in relation to the not wearing of seatbelts."

Northumbria Police said two fixed penalty notices had been issued in its area since September while a spokesman for Cleveland Police was unable to confirm whether it had issued any notices.

He said: "We're focusing our activities instead on children and passengers who are completely unrestrained in vehicles."

Pat Harris, of the campaign group Belt Up School Kids, said she had sympathy for the police and called for changes to be made.

She said: "The legislation that came in was very confusing and needs to be simplified.

"Instead of looking at the height of children and so on, it is more important to look at the way the seatbelt lies across the child.

"It is important that the lap section of the belt lies across the bony part of the hip and never across the legs and stomach.

"The diagonal part should be across the shoulder and never across the face or throat."

She added: "It is extremely important that suitable car booster seats are used in this way because most belts fitted into cars are for adults only. Incorrectly worn belts can cause serious injury to both children and babies."

A spokeswoman for the Department for Transport said: "If the police have concerns about the legislation and how to go about enforcing it we would expect them to feed those concerns back through the available channels.

"So far, we have not been aware of any concerns."

She added: "This is new legislation and will take time to bed in, but it has not come out of nowhere and is merely an enhancement of that which exists already.

"We would not and have never expected police traffic constables to walk around with measuring sticks.

"This is more of an education issue in terms of parents doing the best for their children when it comes to safety and we are confident that the police will play their part in that."