CONFUSED York visitors have hit out at tourism authorities after it took them two days to obtain information about celebrations for the Queen's Birthday last Monday.

A Scarborough couple have told the Evening Press of their struggle trying to find what was done to celebrate the event in York.

Carol and Malcom Appleby tried last week to find out about events to mark the day at the official saluting station for the north in York.

Carol said: "We began trying to find out on Thursday lunch-time. We tried the tourist board, the city council, the army, everybody."

Eventually the couple tried the Evening Press, and we gave them information about the event.

Official confirmation finally came on Saturday.

"Two days later a girl from the council rang, and said they would be having celebrations in the Museum Gardens at noon - but said she couldn't say if there would be any music or anything," said Malcolm.

Carol said: "I understand they have to be security conscious, but it is surely one of our freedoms that we can celebrate the Queen's birthday.

"We wanted to come here to the official centre and pay our respects - is that really too much to ask?"

The chief executive of York Tourism Bureau, Gillian Cruddas, said: "We sincerely apologise to our visitors that they were unable to source information about the Queen's birthday celebrations.

"Whilst we make every effort to ensure that our Tourist Information Centre has up-to-date information on what's on in York, we do also rely on organisations within the city to tell us about their events.

"Unfortunately, we did not receive any information about the Queen's Birthday celebration events. We will talk to the organisers and ensure that we are fully informed next year."

An Army spokesman said: "I am very disappointed, we try very hard to publicise the fact that this is the official saluting station of the North.

"Obviously we have to balance our promotion with security, but we do certainly welcome visitors to the events, and hope to further improve our publicity to attract more people in the future."

The Evening Press would like to add its apologies to those of the other organisations. An oversight meant we did not publicise the salute until the day of the event.

Updated: 10:58 Wednesday, April 23, 2003