Canterbury is known for its historical and cultural surroundings, and for its city full of students. Most people think it a beautiful area, with its focus of the Cathedral in town. However a campaign group in Canterbury called Pride has described it as ‘cultural wilderness’ as it fails to cater for homosexuals by not having enough gay bars.
The campaigners believe that the council has not made it clear that gays are welcome in the community and are now awaiting the outcome of their complaint to the local government ombudsman.
Spokesman Andrew Bretell said: ‘ We are not trying to turn Canterbury into Blackpool or Brighton, but we do think it’s important for the gay community to have a focal point’.
The student club ‘Soap’ is on weekdays but at weekends it is known as ‘Boys and Girls’; this caters for the gay community but apart from this the nearest gay bar is 17 miles away in Margate. The group did complain already last year to the City Council however nothing came of it so now they await the ruling from the ombudsman for next week.
Many of the general public does not feel such pressure should be put upon the council about this matter. £4000 has been funded since 2005 through the grants system to help the gay community and ‘promote their concerns’. People have argued that paying out for new gay bars would be ‘a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money’. Others have discussed the problem with naming it a gay bar- why should any bar or club be called a gay bar? Jim Jones from Canterbury said; ‘it’s a bar, so what if your gay, you still sit and drink like everyone else’.
It has already been announced that the ombudsman has said the key complaints made by Pride are unlikely to achieve success.
By Laura Kerrigan
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