MULTI-millionaire entrepreneur Graham Kennedy, of York, knows when it's time to clean up.

He has patented computerised car wash and valeting booths called Planet Wash at his Inner Space Station fuel stop in Hull Road - which have now been joined by Mr Kennedy's very own Dr Who? Tardis, which he acquired to stress the futuristic nature of his new venture.

Mr Kennedy, who owned four Inner Space Stations with a turnover of £25 million until he sold three of them - at Poppleton Business Park, Boroughbridge Road and Tadcaster Road - to the Co-op three years ago for untold millions, decided to concentrate on perfecting a new system of self-serve car wash at his remaining fuel station.

The result was six futuristic enclosed bays, which took him £300,000 to develop.

The Tardis came as a sci fi-inspired afterthought, to suggest this leap into the future.

He suspected there would be a good response to Planet Wash, given that his Hull Road service station, which has its own bakery and food outlet, serves about 10,000 customers per week.

With people queuing over last weekend to clean their cars, choosing from an "Alien's Guide" ranging from £6 for a superwash to £69 for a supervalet, he now plans to move into the second phase of this future.

Mr Kennedy, who has huge property and business interests all over York and beyond, now plans to roll out his Planet Wash venture in market towns throughout North Yorkshire, including Harrogate, Malton and Wetherby.

"Then within about a year, I intend to franchise them out," he said.

The bays consist of a number of facilities all in one place, including jet wash, wheel wash, body wax, tyre check, screen wash top up, fragrance and spot free finish (as a result of drawing from a tank of superclean water).

Mr Kennedy, a Glaswegian economics graduate, worked for Mobil Oil for seven years, before striking out on his own and investing in the Hull Road filling station, with three others to follow.

They led him to a comfortable lifestyle - living in the magnificent White House, in Bishopthorpe - and an understanding that, even without a Tardis, careful planning for the future can bring a profitable present.

But has he used the Tardis to predict the outcome of his latest venture? "No, I'm more likely to travel into the past in the days when I had a full head of hair!" he quipped.

Updated: 09:46 Wednesday, January 25, 2006