ARCHAEOLOGISTS were today examining human remains that were uncovered by electricity company workers in York city centre.

Two skeletons were discovered yesterday morning close to Holy Trinity Church in Micklegate by NEDL workers who were digging up the road in order to carry out repairs.

The site is known to be archaeologically-sensitive and is featured in a manual which was recently circulated to utility companies by City of York Council.

Council archaeologist John Oxley said he was informed of the find by the Archdeacon of York, the venerable Richard Seed, who is vicar of Holy Trinity Church.

But he said that ideally the electricity company should have contacted him before the work started and an archaeologist could have been on hand to record and examine any remains that were found.

He said: "We have recently supplied all utilities companies with information on archaeological issues so they should be aware of the areas that they are likely to make finds, and the steps they need to take to deal with it. Unfortunately I don't think they did in this case.

"It would have been a help if they had contacted me in advance and we could have made sure there was an archaeologist there.

"The outcome is the same, but it would have saved a lot of phone calls."

Mr Oxley said he planned to write to NEDL to ask them to contact him in future if they planned to do any work in archaeologically-sensitive areas of the city.

A spokesman for NEDL confirmed that bones were discovered at the site yesterday and that work was immediately suspended.

He said that an investigation was taking place into what happened following the discovery of the bones.

Mr Oxley said that the bones will be recorded and removed and depending on what the experts find, the skeletons may also undergo further testing before reburial.

Updated: 10:57 Thursday, March 06, 2003