Back on Tyneside several sites are identified online as dogging sites including under the Redheugh Bridge, North Shields Fish Quay and in Newcastle’s Exhibition Park.

In Northumberland, even locations near to schools are not safe, with extroverts telling each other to meet within 500 yards of Ovington School.

Though his force launched a crackdown against doggers in the picturesque village of Belsay, Northumberland, last November following complaints from residents about amorous anti-social behaviour, Northumbria Police superintendent Mick Paterson said officers were not aware that it was a particular issue across the county.

He said: “However, we would advise people who are considering taking part in this type of activity that any type of inappropriate behaviour is unacceptable, and officers will take action against those responsible,” he said.

“Anyone concerned about this type of activity taking place should report it to police.”

The North has a long recent history of the bizarre sex craze with the sleepy village of Eglingham in Northumberland, a leafy haven for families and tourists, named a “top site for dogging” in 2004.

While in 2005, Carlisle Council ordered the closure of a popular parking spot on the A69 between Carlisle and Newcastle, near the quiet Cumbrian village of Hayton, near Brampton to try to stamp out the practice.

Around the same time, Causey Arch, near Beamish in County Durham, was named by FHM magazine in its guide to the 50 hottest “s**g spots” in Britain.

Three years ago police in Gateshead launched a crackdown against male doggers meeting in the Follingsby Lane area near Wardley.

But, despite the unwanted infamy, some have managed to see the funny side, with British comedy film Dogging: A Love Story, starring Clash of the Titans Luke Treadaway and filming scenes at the Angel of the North, on Newcastle Quayside and at St Mary’s Lighthouse released in 2009.