YORK is a sexier place than Leeds - official.

Now, normally when spurious "surveys" drop into the Diary's inbox they are sent the same way as the offers of £30 million from disgraced Nigerian generals.

But when the survey praises our fair city we can't help but blow our own trumpets.

So hence the reason why Best Western Hotels - which conducted the "survey", and whose head office is, coincidentally, based at Clifton Moor, York - is getting a mention.

According to them, two-thirds of women in our part of the country would opt for a weekend of nookie in York or Edinburgh - possibly in the hope that all its history might inspire their other half to commit to a long-term relationship.

But our bigger, brasher, more vulgar neighbour came bottom of the list, and was dubbed the unsexiest place in the UK by local lasses - 16 per cent of whom put it at the bottom of their list of dream destinations.

But, unfortunately for The Diary's significant other, a bus to Leeds and a night in a bed and breakfast is the closest she is likely to come to a romantic weekend away. Money doesn't grow on trees, you know.