THE urban elite are to be found in York, according to a new survey - although you may have to look quite hard to discover them.

The followers of this modern tribe are, so far as I can fathom, youngish, trendy metropolitan types who can't see an agenda without wishing to set it.

They are the people whose lifestyle, views and trends are shaping the zeitgeist - and if you don't know what that means, you clearly do not have a chattering hope. Some of us just have it, you know (after a furtive fumble through the features desk dictionary reveals the zippy z-word as referring to "the spirit of the times").

Now I fancy belonging to this elite and have one foot through the door because I am undeniably urban. Sadly, I fall down on some of the other qualifications, especially the "conspicuous consumption" bit. My consumption is mostly inconspicuous - in the bank account one minute and out the next, without me having apparently bought a single bloody thing.

Untold years of writing this column each week should surely earn me a few chattering points, although there are those among you who may prefer chuntering.

Anyway, the survey into the urban elite was carried out by Experian Business Strategies, whose findings are used by planning authorities to analyse the demographics of urban areas.

The survey arranged the haunts of the urban elite into a top 50, with the London borough of Wandsworth having the highest proportion of chattering classes. Not surprisingly, the capital and the south feature strongly. The top 20 are all London boroughs, aside from Oxford and Cambridge. After that, Edinburgh, Manchester and Newcastle upon Tyne are the only northern British cities to get a look in, with York coming in at number 40.

This city's comparatively lowly position may seem like a matter of scant importance, especially because the chattering classes are not often thought of kindly. When used in a pejorative sense, there is a suggestion of gassing rather than doing.

While it is true that the chattering classes are sometimes considered to be pretty useless, there is another side to this issue. Those who belong to this trendy tribe can be good for the areas in which they live, bringing a certain degree of wealth, alongside education, an interest in ideas, a liking for new technology, and a love of most things fashionable.

Such people tend to appeal to businesses - both as consumers gullible enough to spend a bomb on the latest gimmick-laden, picture-taking mobile phone, as well as potential employees.

If cities cannot hold on to, or attract, an urban elite, they can lose out. What happens is that the chattering classes all move to London, which will bring a cry of "and a good thing too" from some people.

Yet this country suffers from being too tilted towards the capital, from being London-centric in a manner that is not reflected on the Continent, where there is not such a gap between capital and provincial cities.

If all the educated, trend-setting young people zoom off to London, cities such as York are in danger of being left behind. Balance comes into this, naturally.

Pandering too much to the urban elite could see even more so-called executive flats shooting up all over York.

While no sane person would wish to live surrounded by the urban elite, it is good to have a few around to keep us up to date.

Here, to close, are reported attributes of the urban elite, with my own score included in brackets:

An interest in current affairs, fashion and ideas (yes, maybe, had one of those once);

An international outlook (does this include watching American TV dramas?);

Desire to try new experiences (depends what you are suggesting);

Conspicuous consumption (if only);

A tolerance of opinion (if you tolerate mine, I'll tolerate yours);

A belief in knowledge accumulation (I seem to have lost more than I've amassed, but, yes, why not?).

Sadly, youth is almost certainly required for membership of the urban elite. Being unavoidably middle-aged, I'll have to settle for plain "urban", with the proviso of adding a "sub" in front of that at some stage in the future, so that my wife has a proper garden at last.

Updated: 10:48 Thursday, January 29, 2004