YORK Minster has stayed in the black for the second year running - although with a smaller surplus than last year.

The cathedral's accounts for the financial year 2006/07, which have just been published, reveal an operational surplus of £41,000.

That is down on the £177,000 recorded in the previous financial year, but is still considerably better than the situation of just a few years ago, when the Minster was losing more than £500,000 a year.

The Dean of York, the Very Reverend Keith Jones, said the position last year had been helped by welcome legacies, although income from this source had been less than in the previous year.

However, there had been increased revenue from higher visitor numbers, from Gift Aid and from the Minster's gift shops, which had all contributed to the good result.

Meanwhile, the Minster has also received welcome help towards the "Minster Revealed" project, aimed at restoring much of the stonework and glass of the crumbling East Front and improving the visitor experience.

The total cost of the project is £19 million, and during the financial year 2006/07, donations were received towards the scheme totalling £1.2 million.

But since the accounts were signed off, the Dean And Chapter has been successful in securing an earmarked grant of £10 million towards the scheme from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Dean said the annual results were "encouraging," and the income from our visitors and our gift shops was especially welcome.

"Together with the promised funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund this makes a good starting point for the next phase of our work."

The Minster's financial troubles earlier this decade led it to the controversial decision to introduce compulsory admission charges - though with exceptions for York residents and anyone attending services.

Some visitors and churchgoers criticised charging people trying to enter a place of worship. But the Dean suggested last year that charges had led to an improved atmosphere, in a cathedral which had at times in the past felt like a busy market or railway station.

He said the Minster had no option but to charge, unless the state assisted more in funding historic buildings used as places of worship.