CHRISTMAS consumers in York are making up for lost time.

Stores in the city experienced a quiet start to the season, but as the big day approaches shoppers have been spending like there is no tomorrow.

Most retailers in the city have seen the crowds surge through their doors from late November and expect to match last year's sales.

Katherine Hague, centre manager at Monks Cross in York, said November had started very quietly with customer figures down from last year.

But she said: "Towards the end of the month, it absolutely rocketed. We were getting year-on-year increases of between five and 20 per cent."

She said that although customers had left their shopping until the last minute the centre was expecting good increases in sales compared with last year.

The number of cars entering Monks Cross had increased by between five and 15 per cent compared with 2002, she added.

Norma Middlemiss, centre manager at McArthurGlen Designer Outlet, said: "Christmas has been slow to take off this year. But last week was a very good week for us and again this week we are very busy.

"At the moment our sales are up on last year and it looks like we will at least match last year's sales. It's pretty obvious people have been leaving it later before starting the shopping."

Asda at Monks Cross has been so busy in the run up to Christmas that it has recruited an extra 100 staff to help. And hectic weekends have seen motorists finding it difficult to park in the supermarket's car park.

Events co-ordinator Maree Edgar said a marshal had started patrolling the car park to check cars weren't staying for longer than three hours. In the two weeks before Christmas staff will be parking at the old Asda site in Jockey Lane to free up spaces for customers.

In one parking area at Clifton Moor shopping centre, shoppers have been arriving at the rate of 60,000 a week.

Centre manager Robbie Burnett said: "In line with every year we reckon that the number of visitors is up by three per cent - but this year they tend to be hunting for bargains."

The rush was not confined to weekends. One pre-Christmas sale at Allders department store last Wednesday saw people queuing for opening at 8am, said Mr Burnett.

Updated: 11:59 Friday, December 05, 2003