This is the depressing result of car crime on York's streets today.

Seven stolen cars lay abandoned and burned out just yards from an urban beauty spot and within sight of York Minster.

Car thieves are putting lives at risk by driving at speed down a cycle track before racing around the disused land near Tang Hall.

They torch the cars before starting the process again.

The site, known as the Phoenix Business Park which lays between James Street and Melrosegate, has been earmarked as the new depot for City of York Council.

But the easy access to it and its skid pan-like surface are a magnet to the thieves.

City of York Council today pledged it would take action to clear the site, but Gordon Campbell-Thomas, park ranger for the adjacent St Nicholas Fields urban nature park, said a number of calls about the problem had led to nothing.

"As a responsible community group we cannot let this go. Someone will be killed," he said.

He fears that apart from being an eyesore, a cyclist could be mowed down by the louts as the cars are driven onto the site along a cycle path.

A pensioner was killed by a youth riding a stolen moped further along the path, at Osbaldwick, last year.

He said: "I am sick and tired of seeing the cars there and the numbers grow daily."

The thieves get access to the site driving along Little Hallfield Road then onto the Sustrans cycle path.

The Evening Press highlighted the problem of stolen cars being abandoned and set fire to in the city last month.

MP Hugh Bayley has raised the issue with a Government minister, and the Local Government Association is looking into how to deal with it nationally.

Dave Jackson, of Sustrans, said he had personally blocked car access to the cycle path at 7am today with 12 tonnes of clay.

He said a barrier previously in place had been stolen.

"This is not our responsibility but we have ended up paying for the work," he said.

A City of York Council spokesman said: "We have certainly not been informed that we have this situation in the area and we can only take action when we are made aware of

abandoned cars.

"We removed a single car from this area only a few weeks ago. We will investigate the situation and take action."

York police were this afternoon unavailable for comment but have pledged previously to

take action against the menace of stolen cars being abandoned and torched.

Updated: 16:18 Tuesday, May 01, 2001