A BUSINESS leader is backing calls for a large new department store in York city centre, saying it would fill a "glaringly obvious" gap.

Len Cruddas, chief executive of York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, was giving his initial reaction to a major new study on the future of the city's retail sector.

The study by consultants Roger Tym and Partners, reported in later editions of last night's Evening Press, was commissioned by City of York Council in the wake of last year's decision by the Government to throw out the controversial Coppergate Riverside proposal to develop land near Clifford's Tower.

The consultants conclude that the centre is essentially healthy, but has slipped down the rankings of shopping destinations in the last few years, and there are key omissions from what York has to offer, including a large modern department store and a Tesco Metro style city centre mini-supermarket.

They believe the best location for these buildings would be the Castle Piccadilly site, but stress that any development would have to be more sensitive and scaled down than Coppergate Riverside, with an area of high quality civic open space near the tower.

Mr Cruddas welcomed this as a compromise solution, and spoke of the strong need for a new department store if York was to continue competing with rival retail centres.

He said York city centre had not declined, but other centres had been improving faster. "You cannot be complacent these days," he said. ""You need to improve your offer. The absence of a large new department store is a glaringly obvious gap."

Meanwhile, Adam Sinclair, chairman of York Chamber of Trade, which opposed the Coppergate Riverside Development, gave the report a mixed reaction.

He said the Chamber stuck by its long-held views that it did not wish to see an overbearing development in the site that would elongate the city centre.

However, he stressed that it was not opposed to extra retail development on the site and it could not take a firm view until it had seen the details of the planning brief.

Updated: 10:28 Wednesday, October 13, 2004