A CITY'S mayor is making anonymous fact-finding visits to a youth cafe and the surrounding area in response to calls by neighbours for it to be relocated.

Ripon Mayor Stuart Martin has been called in to act as mediator after residents and traders in the Kirkgate area protested about anti-social behaviour of young people using the cafe and of those people hanging about the area.

Residents and traders are calling for the cafe, Ripsky's, to be closed and relocated.

Some traders said they were worried about the effects on their businesses of young people behaving badly.

The mayor was to have chaired a meeting with traders, residents, police and the people who run the cafe.

But it was decided that a smaller group should meet initially before reporting back to the wider community next Thursday.

Residents and traders in Kirkgate, which is a gateway from Ripon Market Place to Ripon Cathedral, have presented a petition to Ripon City Partnership protesting against the cafe.

Councillor Martin said the initial meeting had been useful, but he had already started making unannounced visits to the youth cafe and area around it to find out for himself what was happening and whether the complaints could be upheld.

He said: "A number of useful suggestions were already raised at the initial meeting." he said, adding these would be deliberated next week.

Traders are holding their own meeting before Thursday.

A local resident said anti-social behaviour was taking place outside the cafe and the meeting chaired by the mayor was one way of highlighting problems faced by people living and working in Kirkgate.

One neighbour has objected to Harrogate Borough Council's planning department, claiming that the original permission had been for an Internet cafe.

The complainant claims it is being used more widely than was originally intended.