PERSISTENT young offenders across North Yorkshire face the risk of being electronically tagged from next week.

Tough measures are being introduced across the county from Monday in a bid to reduce the number of crimes committed by young tearaways.

And tagging will just be part of the £1.25m scheme, which features a "carrot and stick" approach to deal with young repeat offenders.

The Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme is part of a national £45m initiative funded by the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales. Board chairman Lord Warner formally launched the North Yorkshire scheme at a youth crime conference, held at York's Royal York Hotel yesterday. "Intensive supervision is a powerful tool to curb the criminal activities of persistent offenders," he said.

"For the first time courts have the option of a longer, tightly monitored, highly structured, comprehensive alternative to custodial sentences. "The programmes both protect the public and reform offending behaviour."

The initiative follows a successful bid for funding from both the York and North Yorkshire youth offending teams.

And the money will be spent on the intensive supervision and surveillance in the community of "hard-core" young offenders blamed for a large proportion of all local youth crime.

It will involve daily, one-to-one contact between young offenders and support workers, as well as supervision measures such as electronic tagging. It also includes reparation, training and education.

The manager of the North Yorkshire Youth Offending Team, Peter Foulsham, said tackling crime in rural communities would be one of the key priorities. "Having this intensive programme to work with the county's most persistent young offenders is a real boost for our local communities.

"It is well recognised that the impact of crime can be dramatic, especially in small, rural communities, and we believe this programme will make our towns and villages safer places to live in."

Surveillance can be for up to 24 hours a day, seven days a week and youngsters aged from ten to 17 can be included. Although the target of the national scheme is to cut crime by persistent young offenders by five per cent, the target in North Yorkshire is a cut of ten per cent over the next three years ..TEXT: