SECRET talks will have to be held to discuss the drop in York shops' pulling power, a senior city council officer has said.

Tony Bennett, the council's assistant director of economic development, was speaking to members of City of York Council's economic development and community safety scrutiny board.

He said members of the retail and tourist industries feared damaging business if they admitted there was a problem.

Members were discussing a report on the latest survey of visitors, written by Mr Bennett, which claimed there had been an alarming drop in the pulling power of York city centre shops.

It said far fewer people now cited shopping as their main reason for coming to York than five years ago, and fewer picked out shopping when asked what they liked about York.

As reported in last Friday's Evening Press, York Chamber of Trade has dismissed the "damaging" claims, saying they were at odds with most surveys which showed shopping was an increasingly important reason for coming to York.

But Mr Bennett stood by the figures, saying: "The trends are clear, but we are not going to get people to admit it in public.

"We need to make provision for discussions in private, or the retail and tourist industries will go into denial. A positive thing is the Chamber of Trade has agreed to take part."

He said today the council understood retailers' concerns about damaging publicity and also that some of the matters that needed to be discussed were sensitive and commercially confidential.

Therefore, some of the discussions would need to be held in private. But he stressed that the findings would be made public.

Labour group leader Dave Merrett called for York residents' views to be gathered on city centre shopping. He said: "We have visitor information, we need resident information. The shops are important to residents as well."

Coun Andy D'Agorne said: "We should look at where there are niche markets or particular retail areas that are bucking the trend to analyse what factors have helped with that. We do not want to be perceived just as doom and gloom merchants."

Members agreed to include retail in York as a scrutiny topic for the remainder of the year's programme.

Updated: 10:26 Thursday, July 17, 2003