A SENIOR cinema chief has pledged to examine the Evening Press petition, calling on bosses to save the York Odeon.

The cinema chain's executives had refused to accept the 13,600-strong petition by hand on Thursday at their headquarters in London, off Leicester Square.

An unnamed employee eventually agreed to take it in after we were left waiting outside for more than 30 minutes.

But an Odeon spokeswoman said yesterday: "Ron Hanlon, Odeon marketing director, is now in possession of the Odeon York petition and will be looking through it in due course."

Updated: 09:18 Saturday, March 13, 2004