FAMILY and friends of missing Skipton man Rory Johnson-Hatfield have vowed to continue looking for him after being told by searches of land around the River Ouse in York have been called off.

Volunteers have scoured riverbanks and fields for several miles downstream of Naburn, on the outskirts of the city, looking for Rory (pictured) who disappeared on a night out in York in November.

Members of Bolton Mountain Rescue Team and their trained dogs recently joined Humberside police underwater team to search 36 miles of the river as far as Goole for Rory, who has not been seen since the early hours of November 20, when CCTV cameras picked him up in the Piccadilly area of York.

The 29-year-old's father, Doug Hatfield, a former restaurateur in Skipton, has written a post on the Rory Johnson is Missing! Facebook page, which says: "After extensive searches on the River Ouse by North Yorkshire Police, we have been told by the police that due to the scale of resources required, a land search of the fields along the river will not take place.

"Clearly, this is difficult news to come to terms with, especially given the extent of flooding over the surrounding land that occurred over the winter months.

"This does not mean, however, the search for Rory along the riverbanks of the Ouse will not continue. Rory's mother, friends and volunteers will carry on searching these areas, weather permitting, as they have done for the extremely difficult 20 weeks that our son Rory has been missing."

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said officers would not be carrying out "active searches" for Rory unless there was new information, though he stressed the investigation was continuing.