Marriages of convenience in county's cheating capital

The city has more than 2,300 people having affairs, according to a dating website for married people.

And most of those appear to live in Fulwood where almost 1,700 are reported to be committing adultery after arranging dates on IllicitEncounters.com.

The figures, drawn from the number of married people who the site claims have used its services during the past year, show the cleanest town in Lancashire in terms of affairs is Carnforth, ironically the setting for the classic film Brief Encounter. Only 155 people there have been tempted to stray.

“More and more people are signing up to the site every year,” said spokesman Christian Grant. “The reason for the surge is that record numbers of married couples in Lancashire are living together unhappily because they simply cannot afford to divorce.

“Spiralling house prices and living costs have made financially impossible for couples to set up two homes following a split, so they struggle on while seeking excitement elsewhere.”

IllicitEncounters boasts more than one million UK users and bases its adultery findings on the geographical data of its clients.

In addition to Preston, the Bamber Bridge area comes high up in Lancashire’s cheating league table - and is 36th in the entire country based on percentage of population - with 743 adulterers. Chorley (913), Leyland (552), Longridge (511) and Adlington (558) also figure.

But a measure of the accuracy of the statistics comes with the assertion that the village of Freckleton has 898 adulterers and Ulnes Walton 216.