DURHAM residents fed up with late-night drunken trouble say they cannot face any more pubs opening in the area.

People in and around North Road have joined police in objecting to the 700-capacity Walkabout Australian theme pub planned for the Robins Cinema site.

Yesterday, residents told Durham Crown Court how they have to endure a catalogue of problems in the early hours at weekends and that the new venue will only make things worse.

They include drunken male and female revellers relieving themselves in streets and gardens, fights, noise, loud music, vandalism and people having sex in the open.

Karen Taylor, of Tenter Terrace, said she and her neighbours often had to clean the street with disinfectant.

She told the court how one woman was "frightened for her life" after a strange man who was drunk burst into her house.

Mrs Taylor, who said she had to sleep wearing earplugs, said the Walkabout would result in "hundreds more people in the streets for a longer period with a corresponding rise in the problems".

She said an example of the possible impact of the Walkabout was that of the Lacuna bar, which opened in the bus station in June.

"I have already noted, as have my neighbours, a marked increased in drunken anti-social behaviour.''

She welcomed proposals by Walkabout operator Regent Inns to ease problems, such as late-night buses, sound-proofing and security cameras.

But she added: "It's like the Alamo and we are having to take a stand.''

Retired police inspector Trevor Coppock, of North End, said police did not have enough manpower to deal with incidents of disorder, often leaving outlying villages without cover.

He warned that increased competition among North Road premises could lead to a drinks war in which people would be "encouraged to throw as much alcohol down their necks as possible".

Sunderland University senior lecturer Valerie Bonnardel, from France, said she moved to Neville Street thinking she was in a "civilised environment" but said that some revellers behaved like barbarians.

She told how she felt insecure after a drunken yob kicked in her front door one Sunday night.

Regent Inns is appealing against magistrates' refusal to grant a drinks licence. The case is expected to end on Friday