DRUNKEN WIMMIN FRIGHTEN GAYS

Last updated : 26 June 2002 By Editor

'Members of the gay community say they feel threatened by the behaviour of visiting working class women from the Wythenshawe and Salford areas. Researchers at Manchester University found that the residents sometimes feel under siege in an area that in recent years they have largely made their own.

Bev Skeggs, of the university's sociology department, has spent two years researching Canal Street life.

She said:

"There are people there who want trouble. The problem is with the hen party syndrome. People have complained about the presence of groups of the wrong type of women, with men following them in."

"Those continually identified as a problem were working class women from Wythenshawe and Salford."