INSPECTORS could name York the cleanest city in Britain next week - only days after growing problems with graffiti, vandalism and fly posting were reported.

Pressure group ENCAMS, formerly the Keep Britain Tidy Group, discovered a "significant" deterioration in only four years.

And yet the British Cleaning Council could judge it is cleaner than 55 other competitors after making York a finalist in a competition to find the nation's tidiest city.

The embarrassing contradiction is due to the way the Britain's Cleanest City competition is judged, looking only at land cleaned by City of York Council and in the city centre.

"There are serious issues about whether we really are clean," said Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Coun Andrew Waller.

"The areas of the city centre that the council is responsible for are pretty clean, but there are a lot of other private areas which are deteriorating and residential areas really are not being cleaned enough."

He said demands had already been made for the council to clean up, while complaints about the state of residential areas received had gone up by 70 per cent in less than three years.

"An example is the stretch of the A1237 from the A19 roundabout to the A59," said Coun Waller. "It is a disgrace with fly tipping, carpets, boxes and litter in the verges. What an image this presents to visitors."

In a glitzy ceremony being held in Birmingham, the British Cleaning Council could choose York from 11 finalists for the cleanest city title.

Judges have been to the city to see how council staff keep streets clean, and to tour facilities such as public buildings and toilets.

The ENCAMS report caused concern among the city's tourist leaders.

Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of York Tourism Bureau, said: "While the city council has worked hard to improve cleaning services in the city, we believe that this alone will not resolve all our problems. For the sake of visitors and residents, it is important that the surrounding suburbs of York are kept clean as well as the city centre. "

York's cleanliness index was actually above the national average with 98.6 per cent of street sites either free or predominantly free of litter, said a spokesman for City of York Council.

Updated: 10:44 Friday, February 28, 2003