FAST food restaurant McDonalds has been criticised by York council leader James Alexander over its response to “intolerable” antisocial behaviour by its late night customers.

Coun Alexander wrote to Jill McDonald, president and chief executive officer of McDonalds UK, to tell her of his experience when he visited the Blake Street takeaway after joining the council’s late-night street cleaning crew.

Coun Alexander wrote: “While I was cleaning up outside your restaurant at around 5am, I felt intimidated by customers eating McDonalds food, who were shouting and intoxicated.”

“There was no action from either your staff or security staff to ensure this behaviour stopped happening in the entrance to the restaurant.”

Coun Alexander said he had also accompanied police on a seven-hour night shift and understood from talking to them that they were called to the premises on a regular basis on Friday and Saturday nights.

“I witnessed four police officers spending around 45 minutes in your restaurant trying to maintain the peace,” he said.

“I don’t believe this is a good use of taxpayers’ money.

“During the evening I attended the restaurant three times. People outside the restaurant were shouting at residents, intimidating other customers entering and leaving the restaurant and intimidating staff. This problem has become intolerable.”

Coun Alexander said that after a licence review triggered by the problems, a decision had been taken to reduce the restaurant’s operating hours, but he understood the company was appealing against this decision.

“This is of course your right but I would rather we sit down and discuss how to resolve these issues for the benefit of the city, Blake Street residents in particular, and for McDonalds.”

A McDonald’s spokeswoman told The Press its priority was to be a good neighbour and to ensure the safety and security of its employees and customers at all times. We were concerned to receive Coun Alexander’s letter regarding our Blake Street restaurant and we will be contacting him to organise a meeting to discuss his concerns in more detail,” she said.

“We too are concerned about the issues of drunkenness, noise and antisocial behaviour in the city. We hope that meeting with Coun Alexander will mark the start of a more unified approach between ourselves, the council and a range of other people and organisations in the city to address the root causes of these problems.”