AS many as 41 businesses in North and East Yorkshire, mostly in York, have been praised by disabled people.

All of them, including supermarkets, visitor centres, banks, restaurants, car dealerships and hotels have been nominated for awards as organisations which really care about the rights of disabled people to enjoy EASE - an acronym for Ease of Access, Service and Employment.

Queen Elizabeth's Foundation, the national charity which helps more than 100,000 disabled people every year, invited the nominations for the fifth consecutive year.

Organiser Deborah Nurse, of the Foundation, said: "Clearly York and the whole of that region is sufficiently 'disabled aware' to encourage disabled people themselves to praise them.

"It is too easy to criticise and these awards offer encouragement and praise where it is due."

More than 3,200 organisations nationally were named as demonstrating good practice for disabled people. Twenty-three were in York, 12 in Scarborough, two each in Selby and Bridlington, and one each in Filey and Malton.

Disabled people praised York's Coppergate shopping centre, Clifton Bingo Club Ltd, York Railway Station and York District Hospital.

The city's Asda and Sainsbury's superstores were nominated in the supermarkets' section and numerous hotels were praised, including the Holiday Inn Express, as well as the Travel Inn, York, White Lodge Hotel, Filey, and Loftsome Bridge Coaching House, Selby.

York-based GNER was named as being conscious of the needs of disabled people in the transport category and York's Theatre Royal and Scarborough's Futuristic Theatre were singled out as considerate places for disabled people to visit as was Flamingo Land Holiday Village, near Malton.

Each category will be whittled down to three finalists. Winners from this shortlist will be announced at a luncheon at the London Hilton on October 18.

Updated: 11:36 Thursday, August 30, 2001