THE report which recommends the closure of a number of York's churches may not be radical enough, the Archbishop of York has warned.

Dr David Hope told a meeting of York's Deanery Synod that there would be a decrease in the number of new clergy available in the next five to ten years.

At present there are 30 full-time posts in the city, but there may only be about 16 to 18 trained clergy available to fill those posts in the future.

About 200 people turned up to the meeting at St William's College last night to debate the proposals of the report which was commission by Dr Hope.

The report recommends a series of changes at churches throughout the city.

The most controversial is that several churches - St Helen's in St Helen's Square, Holy Trinity and St Martin cum Gregory in Micklegate, All Saints' in North Street, St Laurence's in Lawrence Street and St Chad's in Campleshon Road - should be made redundant.

A spokesman for the Diocese of York said there was an intense atmosphere at the meeting. He said: "We were all aware that there were a number of people at the meeting who felt great concern for one reason or another."

Representatives from All Saints' Church turned up and were prepared to make a presentation, but were unable to do so because of time constraints.

Dr Robert Richards, a churchwarden at All Saints', said just because there might be fewer clergy in the future did not necessarily mean the closure of churches.

He said it had been mentioned at the meeting that there was one example of a rural clergyman in the York area covering up to 14 churches at a time.

He said: "We are not convinced that losing clergy is the same as closing churches.

"We think we can lose our full-time clergy without closing our church.

"We expect to be going forward with a positive attitude for the future and not closing."

Points raised during the discussion of the report have now been passed on to the York Deanery Synod standing committee, and the next meeting will take place on October 30.

Updated: 11:02 Thursday, September 26, 2002