But, while some of the people I spoke to thought there should be more police around, most said they didn't find the Gardens frightening at night.
Manchester council project officer Dave Bamber, 44, said: "It's not frightening for me, but maybe to some people. I can imagine it would be, because it's quiet dark.
"I guess more police patrols would be a good idea. I can see why people see gangs of lads hanging about as intimidating.
"But equally, it's just young people hanging around with their friends."
Student Dave Chappell, 21, from Stockport, said: "I don't sense any trouble, but I can see why some people might be intimidated by gangs of kids."
His girlfriend, Caroline Oliver, 24, also a student from Stockport, said: "I feel more intimidated by schoolkids. And it's worse in Stockport at weekends than it is here."
Training manager Lorna Gibb, 22, said: "There are cameras and always people about, but I try to avoid the area if I can. I used to live on Dale Street and I wouldn't walk through the Gardens at night."
Lorna's friend, Natalie Gibson, said: "I don't find it intimidating, but I would avoid walking past the amusement arcade, as there are always people hanging around."
Tweet
Comments
Login or Register to comment
And only yesterday we had GMP "smugly bragging" how they're making the streets of Manchester 'safer' - by taking early decisive action and "deporting" loud football fans from pubs in Irlam.
Wonder what GMP's Assistant Chief Constable Justine Curran - has got to say about this then? (Maybe if the Piccadilly Gardens drug dealers wore football shirts, then GMP would brutally crack down upon them??)
I work just around the corner from Piccadilly Gardens and I can't say I've ever felt threatened or intimidated walking through it, either during the day or at night. I would agree that the Piccadilly area isn't the most salubrious part of the city centre, as it seems to attract a lot of winos and my colleagues and I have seen people smoking dope openly during the day in the gardens, but I don't find that particularly intimidating. I've never felt threatened, even as a woman on my own.
I've never felt threatened in Piccadilly Gardens since they remodelled it, no matter what time of day it is. It's open, busy, and lit well enough to not have to worry.
The gardens are about as scary as Alistair Darlings eye brows.
Mr Bamber says it';s quite dark - why on earth is a supposed showpiece area of the city centre not properly lit? Probably because it's an eyesore.
working in Piccadilly Gardens is horrible myself & my co workers get accosted daily by the dregs of society wanting a cigarette or a fight, it also seems that the gardens is a meeting place for all the dangerous mentally unstable & as for dealers openly selling drugs you could get anything you wanted easily just by standing there
the police need to sort it out before the only people who will go there are the people who work there
The only time I have ever felt threatended in piccadilly gardens was when it was full of drunk obnoxious Rangers fans.
piccadilly gardens is a mess. the grey walls look like stangeways prison. liverpool have just built liverpool one. manchester council should see how there gardens are. piccadilly is a meeting place for drugs. and i have also... as well as other people.! noticed a lot of the asylum seekers new to manchester. meet up there too. seems to be a meeting place. during the afternoons. am a manc. now living in liverpool.
Peter Clarke -'new asylum seekers', how on earth could you possibly tell just by walking past? How do you know the're not British citizens? ..
Put a portable police station in there, then we'll see how long the scrotes stick around.
Agree the gardens are not a pleasant place, but dislike the comment about asylum seekers! It is true there are groups of young men, from the kurdish community for example, who do meet up there, but they are no threat! You never see them drinking!