I REFER to the letter from your reader David Quarrie (Litter shames city, August 6).

Cleanliness standards in the city have been comprehensively surveyed over recent years by the Tidy Britain Group, an independent body that has shown York compares very favourably with other cities in the country.

This was substantiated earlier this summer by the Thomas Cook Travel Awards in which York was one of only two cities in the country to receive the accolade for its well-swept streets.

I am not complacent about our national standing and I am aware that there are occasional lapses in maintaining the standard throughout the city.

However, where we do find problems, as referred to by Mrs A Schmid in her letter (August 9), we take effective action to put things right. I have recently been involved in negotiations to ensure cleanliness standards throughout the city continue to be at a high level.

Councillor Derek Smallwood,

Executive Member for the Environment,

Wycliffe Avenue, Tang Hall,

York.

Updated: 10:32 Tuesday, August 14, 2001