A lack of police on the streets is leading to drunken behaviour during the day - Sarah Todd

Tailbacks caused by the single carriageway sections are, as an aside, the reason why so many drivers inadvertently get ‘done’ for going a few miles over the speed limit once they finally hit a clear stretch of road. Those poor families who have had a day spending their hard-earned money at the seaside, tired children nattering in the back as the traffic grinds to yet another standstill, and to cap it all they get a brown envelope through the door a few days later.

It has been in the news that there is now a new generation of high-tech traffic camera vans, at £47,000 a pop, that can catch speeding drivers and other offenders from up to a mile away.

Regular readers will be wondering what has rattled this redhead’s cage. No, it’s not a speeding fine.

It was the realisation, after pulling off the A64 and spending what was supposed to be a pleasant wedding anniversary afternoon and evening in York, that there don’t seem to be any police officers on our country’s streets where they are needed. The reality, at least on the day of this visit, seems to be there are no bobbies on the beat anymore. Seems like they are all parked up, having a cushy number, sat in speed vans.

The Husband didn’t make the grand gesture of a weekend away, but a few Saturdays ago we jumped on the absolutely amazing Coastliner bus and had a mid-afternoon wander around the city before dinner at the restaurant where he had popped the question three decades earlier.

We landed in the centre of York at about 4pm and were immediately struck by how rowdy it was, with people properly plastered at that time in the afternoon. Not only shouting and swearing from inebriated hen party girls but from many others.

Lads spilling out from pubs - all tans, teeth, tattoos and tight t-shirts - into the middle of the road, too far gone to give a jot about the young and old recoiling in genuine fear of being knocked over. There was also an element riding bikes down the main shopping street with eyes out on stalks. Now the telltale signs of drug taking isn’t a specialist subject, but they were definitely off their heads on some illegal substance. Saturday afternoon shoppers darting into doorways to avoid getting mowed down by these individuals who were straight out of a scene from the film Trainspotting.

It was impossible not to feel sorry for the couples who were so obviously having a weekend break in the city, going for what they would have presumed would have been a romantic wander through the historic streets. It’s no exaggeration to say it was downright rough and really rather frightening.

As we walked over the river we didn’t linger long enough to look over the bridge. It really did feel like someone sozzled could catapult you one way or the other – either into the water or the oncoming traffic.

Having lived a life as a young farmer and a journalist, both sectors of society that like a drink and a good time, it’s not that your correspondent is easily shocked. Likewise The Husband, who has notched up more than his fair share of lively rugby club antics.

Now, there is no saying that people’s behaviour would have been any different if there were a few police officers visibly patrolling the streets. They were all probably too far gone to take any notice. What some police presence would have done was to make us, the general public, feel slightly safer. Surely though, it might have just made some lads think before they started scrapping or swearing at the top of their voices. Incidentally, it was the girls whose language was the worst.

Now this was genteel York, where records show antisocial behaviour increased by 15.6 per cent over the last year within its alcohol restriction zone, so heaven knows what other cities are like.

Apparently, there has been a shift away from traditional night life in cities towards all-day Magaluf-style day drinking and bottomless brunches.

Time was, young people would be hard at work during the day…