A NATIONAL radio station has compared York's late night drinking problems to those in notorious Faliraki.

BBC Five Live took to the city's streets last night - on one of the busiest evenings in the year after the Racecourse Ebor Day meeting - to study whether any drunken and rowdy behaviour here compared with the excesses of Brits in Rhodes.

The feature has caused some concern to tourism leader Gillian Cruddas, who said: "It doesn't do us any good - we are looking to portray a different image."

Mrs Cruddas, the chief executive of York Tourism Bureau, said it had not received complaints from families about intimidation by drunks for some time; complaints had centred rather on begging.

But the Market Weighton man whose email to Five Live sparked its investigation, Simon Ewbank, said today he had not been knocking York.

Mr Ewbank said he had simply been stressing that what was being reported in Faliraki was no different to what was happening in any British city on a Friday or Saturday night.

Mr Ewbank, who went round York with a reporter last night, talking to pub door staff and others about drink-fuelled excesses, said he had been to Faliraki a couple of times and believed it was no worse than Newcastle, Leeds or York.

York police spokesman Sergeant Colin Ventress said two people had been arrested at the racecourse for drunkenness and another two in the city centre for being drunk and incapable.

He said: "When a large number of people gather together for an event such as this, you are bound to have some incidents, but thankfully there were no serious incidents of violence or disorder."

Updated: 10:53 Thursday, August 21, 2003