TRIBUTES have been paid to a North Yorkshire road policing officer who died in a motorbike accident on Wednesday.

PC Glenn Robinson, 46, was riding his own motorcycle home to Harrogate when he was involved in an accident with a car on the A59, seven miles west of the town.

The collision happened at 4.40pm at the junction with White Wall Lane and closed the road for five hours.

Last night, his wife, Claire, issued a statement through the force. She said: "Glenn leaves behind a devastated wife and two children."

PC Robinson was part of the road policing team and was based in Skipton.

Chief Superintendent Bernie Mitchell, commander of the force's western area, said: "I have known and worked with Glenn for 20 years in and around the Harrogate area. He was a committed, dedicated and hard-working police office and his death is a loss to both the community and to North Yorkshire Police."

PC Robinson's death brings the number of motorcyclists killed in North Yorkshire so far this year to ten.

Police have been campaigning to cut the number of bikers killed and seriously injured in the county for the past two years.

The campaign saw the number of riders and pillion passengers killed in accidents fall from 28 in 2003 to 17 last year.