RECENTLY walking into town I came across a group of tourists just inside Monkgate Bar. One of the small children had dropped a cream cake on the footpath. The father immediately picked the cake up and put it in a bag. He then proceeded to take a paper tissue out of his pocket and mopped the cream off the path.

Obviously this group of visitors think more of the state of the city’s streets and walkways than York council. When they go back to their own country will they talk of this beautiful city, or more than likely the state of the dirty streets?

Why can’t the shops and eating places take a bit of responsibility for maintaining the area out side their premises? Talking to a farmer from Canada once, he informed me that they had a responsibility to clear the snow from their entrance onto the main road, to the the next farm entrance down.

Surely its not too much for these shops to maintain their frontage. The best maintained shop front in York must be Braithwaite’s jewellery shop in Goodramgate: immaculately maintained and a credit to the city.

DM Deamer, Penleys Grove Street, Monkgate, York.