'We'll find out where you live': The estates 'where you don't want to be at night'

Thugs with big dogs and mopeds have left some people 'living in fear' in the estates neighbouring Dootson's Park in the Butts Bridge area of Leigh, a number of residents have claimed.

In daytime the park, overlooked by Butts Mill, is pleasant in the spring sunshine. But when skies darken the park, along with the banks of nearby Leigh canal, have reportedly become meeting places for youths behaving anti-socially.

One neighbourhood watch member, who asked not to be named, describes youths sneaking into bushes to do 'drug pick ups', and mopeds being driven erratically along the streets. She says 'young lads' keep big dogs as 'weapons', using the zip wire in the park's play area to train their their jaws.

READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News WhatsApp community

She claims to have been threatened after interrupting a drug deal - being told 'we'll find out where you live' - and, in a separate incident, that she was charged at by a thug on a motorbike while walking along the canal.

As a result of this incident, and another in which a neighbour had bricks put through their windows, she has spent thousands upgrading security at her home.

Describing the incident in which she believes she stumbled on a drug pick up, she said: “Me and my friend were walking down the canal with our dogs. We went past and we knew what they were doing and we carried on walking.

“They were there behind us and then stopped and went behind some bushes to collect drugs. One of them biked up to me and asked 'who are you?' then called me a grass.

"He said he would find out where I lived and come and take my dog. We just said to ourselves, ‘keep walking’.”

On another occasion while she was walking her dog, the woman says a motorcycle rider