FEMALE streaker Elder, who stripped naked in front of the Lord Mayor of York at the opening ceremony of York's designer shopping outlet, told today of her reasons.

The 33-year-old mother-of-one told the Evening Press she felt compelled to do "just something" and thought that baring all would make the biggest impact.

"It was unreal really. I just started to take my clothes off. I don't really know where I intended to go but I realised that the best statement I could make was to stand at the front naked."

She added that she felt angry when she saw the amount of money that had been spent on the lavish affair.

Elder - not her real name - was one of the many "eco-warriors" who protested at the former Naburn hospital site when construction work first started on the £64 million new McArthurGlen outlet. She and others delayed the development for more than a year. Last Thursday she ran up to astonished dignitaries at the lavish opening ceremony and shouted "shopping, shopping, shopping" and "this is sad" before she was arrested.

"My conscience just led me to take my clothes off," Elder said. "We had built a community around that site. We used to take our children there, play on the swings and relax. I find the whole development greedy, sickening and pathetic. They've ruined a site that we came to love."

Elder added that the incident cost her around £100 after she left two coats and one Doc Marten boot on the shopping centre floor.

Fellow protester John Cossham, who came to the rescue when Elder was left partially-clothed at the police station, said: "It was completely spontaneous, she did not plan to do it."

Police said today that patrols have been drafted in to deal with a possible heavy influx of traffic travelling to the shopping centre.

Their main concern is preventing congestion on the A64 dual carriageway on the approaches to the outlet.

They will be monitoring the site over the next week and will draft in more police motorcycles if it starts to get too busy.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.