Businesses in Clifton Moor, fearing that they are becoming increasingly isolated, have called for urgent talks with councillors and transport chiefs from the City of York Council.

They want assurances of better day-to-day communication than they have had in the past and will call for the council to declare its strategy for the huge retail, commercial and industrial estate.

The polite request for a meeting has come from Robbie Burnett, retail estate manager and other members of the 100-strong Clifton Moor Association. "We're approaching this in a reasonable, friendly way," he said.

But traders, especially, are still smarting over the Council's unannounced closure of a main road to the estate over ten days in the run-up to Christmas. Part of Wigginton Road was shut in order to build a new roundabout and access into one of the shopping phases of the estate.

And the apparently arbitrary way in which the final terminus for Park and Ride was moved from outside the heart of Clifton Moor at the Warner cinema to its new site in Shipton Road well away from the estate was not appreciated either.

Many firms and stores relied on the bus to bring staff to the estate. They feared that the problem of getting staff to Clifton Moor would exacerbate the recruiting difficulties they are already experiencing with relatively high employment figures in York and new rival out-of-town retail developments.

Brian Asquith, managing director of First York which is laying on the buses for the City of York Council, said that to bridge the gap his company had now started a new half hourly service - the X19 - between Station Avenue, York and the Warner cinema complex with an introductory return fare of £1 which was cheaper than the £1.70 out-of-town park and ride.

"Should the demand warrant it we will make it a 15 minute service," he said.

Sam Parr, the general manager of the Argos superstore at Clifton Moor, speaking as the retail representative of the Association said: "We'll obviously give this solution a chance."

But no one knew at this stage what effect there would be on traders generally by taking away the park and ride terminus at Warner. "Many of us benefited from the passing trade."

He added: "We feel in some ways that we are getting a bit detached from the whole of York as a concept."

Mr Parr said that not even he, who lives as well as works on Clifton Moor, was aware of the closure of the Wigginton Road roundabout until it happened.

It was important that nothing was done to worsen the recruitment problems of the estate. "Unemployment in York is good - 2.7 per cent against the national average of 5.2 per cent, so the demand for staff is high.

"We increased our staffing limits over Christmas by 250 per cent. Where normally we employ between 80 and 100 staff it should rise to between 230 and 240, but we and others fell short by between 15 and 20 per cent.

"It was not just that there was employment rivalry from other out-of-town centres like Monks Cross and BAA McArthurGlen.

"Everywhere in York people can pick and choose jobs, but everything must be done to ensure that we at Clifton Moor don't have the problem exacerbated like a lack of signposting along the ring road.

"We want councillors just to iron out a few problems."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.