PLEASE permit a comment from a regular visitor from the US. York has become somewhat less littered in recent years for whatever reason. One thing I do notice still is the ugly black slime that develops on the sidewalks especially in winter. In other countries, notably in Norway, tanker trucks sluice the sidewalks daily.

All this muck is tramped into shops - why don't business owners sluice down their frontages daily as I have seen in Holland and France?

As a major tourist city, York has a duty and a self-interest in being spick and span. I realise it may be difficult to make the Brits as litter conscious as the Russians or the Japanese but you have to begin somewhere.

I believe that litter attracts litter much the same way graffiti does.

Paul Dee,

Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.

Updated: 10:50 Tuesday, February 19, 2002