Here’s a heartening sight for anyone who’s had to clear up the mess made by late night city goers – footage of some of them getting their comeuppance.

York council has YouTubed CCTV film of three men pulling over wheelie bins and strewing rubbish across Gillygate in the early hours of a Tuesday morning.

The footage shows the men upending the bins and throwing bin bags into the centre of the street.

What they didn’t realise at 2.30am on January 7 was that they were being watched by the eye in the sky. Operators at the York Travel & Control Centre (YTCC) spotted what they were up to and contacted police.

Officers were soon on the scene and forced the shamefaced men to clear up the mess they made.

The travel and control centre was launched in June. Each month since then it has recorded an average of 550 incidents and provided 40 pieces of evidence to the police to catch and prosecute offenders.

It also keeps a close eye on traffic in the city allowing the council to change signal timings, monitor bus journey times and update commuters via information screens at bus stops, on Twitter and the York Live website.

“This particular incident was quickly spotted by CCTV operators allowing police officers to be on the scene within minutes to deal with the situation before it could cause too much concern or upset to the general public,” said Superintendent Phil Cain, York Safer Neighbourhood Commander.

“I commend the officers involved for dealing with the incident in a sensible and proportionate manner and hopefully the lads in question will learn some lessons from this and improve their conduct in the future.”