REGULAR late-night shopping will be tremendous for York. It will revitalise the early evenings, benefit residents and boost tourism.

We have witnessed a retail revolution in the last 20 years. People can now shop around the clock - but only if they travel to the out-of-town superstores and shopping outlets.

York, meanwhile, has been left behind. It effectively closes down at 5.30pm, just as it did in the 1950s. After the evening rush hour the city enters a deathly limbo, awaiting revival by the influx of pub-goers.

It should not be like this. City centre living is back, and the Hungate and York Central developments will accelerate the trend. Meanwhile, thousands of people travel into the centre of York every day to work.

Yet, if these residents and commuters want to do some shopping after office hours, they are forced to journey to Monks Cross or Clifton Moor. It restricts choice for the shoppers and is bad for city centre shops.

From Easter, however, that will change - at least on Thursdays. The council and retailers have teamed up to keep York open until 8pm once a week.

The popularity of this arrangement in the run-up to Christmas demonstrates the demand is there. And regular later shopping will be a further step towards establishing a continental-style caf culture here. If the move encourages more restaurants to open earlier, York could soon mirror other European cities in providing a lively and sociable alternative to going home straight after work.

Late-night shopping will undoubtedly help our tourist trade. Foreign visitors especially must be bewildered that York goes to sleep for a few hours when they want to be out exploring.

It goes without saying that shop staff should not be forced into working extra hours unless they wish to. Shop bosses need to negotiate arrangements with employees that are mutually satisfactory.

With staff support, the right publicity and council back-up, we are sure regular late-night shopping will be a success. Then all involved might consider extending the experiment to other days in the week.

Updated: 11:37 Friday, January 24, 2003