A TOP fashion retailer is the latest to join York's shopping revolution.

Bank, which has 32 stores in the UK selling top female fashion brands such as Ted Baker, Replay, Fornarina and Miss Sixty, has opened Clearing Bank, a temporary outlet shop, in York's Coppergate Centre.

The store, which sells stock up to a season old and at discounts of 50 per cent, has taken only an eight- week lease on licence on the site of the former jewellers Preston & Duckworth, which went into administration last year.

But the massively growing chain is serious about finding a permanent York home for a full-blown Bank store at a later stage.

Managing director Damian Scarlett, who is leading an aggressive expansion which will see nearly 30 more Bank stores open by 2009, said: "We considered opening in Coney Street four years ago and York is still on our target list.

"The Clearing Bank will give us a good feeling for the city centre.

"It is a tester by which Bank should not be judged.

"Our Bank stores are much larger. In our Manchester store, we spent £350,000 fitting it out.

"York is a lovely city but there have always been concerns. The reasonably high rental is one, but the main issue is the city centre parking. For retailers, it is not the easiest to access.

"Park&Ride is a good solution so long as people use it. It is great for tourism.

"We aim to expand and we would never overlook York as a potential site, but our shops do tend to be larger than the site in Coppergate.

"We have always done very well in Yorkshire and the north west. We have successful stores at the White Rose Centre, Leeds, Hull and Grimsby."

But he asked the public not to judge Bank on the new Clearing Bank.

Mr Scarlett said: "It will offer great bargains, but we don't want their perception too tainted by a clearance outlet".

Adam Sinclair, chairman of the York Chamber of Trade, said the arrival of Clearing Bank comes at a time when the shopping offered in York is "improving markedly".

That is also the view of London property agents, who recently said that the breadth of shopping in York is intensifying more than in other locations.

Mr Sinclair said: "Already we have leading ladies fashion house Whistles setting up in Stonegate.

"There has been a fitting out of Coast, the women's fashion store in Davygate, and there has been a lot of interest in the vacated Giselle unit in High Petergate."

Updated: 10:19 Saturday, April 22, 2006