In-depth research commissioned by PR firm Vauxhall Tigra looked at all aspects of modern British female culture, and revealed that Hebden Bridge was the Top Town for:

• Young Urban Lesbian Females
• Green Town Winner
• Self-proclaimed “Lesbian capital of the UK
• Best parking rates at only 60p an hour, compared with Birmingham where women are forking out £3 for the 60 minute privilege.

Compiled by independent research body, The Future Laboratory, the findings reveal that women are demanding more than ever from their home towns, expecting only the best female-friendly bars and clubs, designer shops, female healthcare outlets, equal employment opportunities and salary expectations. The research even looked into the number of single men per city and best places to find a potential partner.

In these top towns for women you are likely to find the YUF (Young Urban Female) - a rapidly emerging breed of young women are spending more than ever, partying harder than ever and looking better than ever - but working less than any generation before them. They often work by a trend experts are calling 'Binge Careerism' where they work in a career job for six months or so before taking six months off to travel. More details in the report. The report polled over 2,500 individuals and worked with nearly 100 different organisations.

The top 10 towns are 1. Leeds 2. Colchester 3. Poole 4. Birmingham 5. Kingston 6. Edinburgh 7. Liverpool 8. Cambridge 9. Manchester 10. Hebden Bridge.

The full report, in describing the methods used, says "Hebden Bridge, for instance, a little-known Yorkshire village, was our Green Town winner. Our Green filter covered a town’s Fairtrade status and with it a town’s ‘greenness’ and community-based initiatives, along with eco-orientated independent shops."

The report continues, "Reading and Southend scored higher than Hebden Bridge in our tally system for other criteria (Education, Crime & Safety and Nightlife for example). However Hebden Bridge was the only town renewing its Fairtrade Town status and is the unofficial UK capital for lesbians. Therefore it has come out on top of the New Economic Foundation’s Clone Town Study as the UK town with the most character in terms of its high street, so we moved it up our list. Why? Well, in our initial research, women in the category we were concerned with said that independent shops, organic and Fairtrade stores and products were high on their list, as were social and cultural diversity. Hebden Bridge, with its roots in the Green movement and its large number of female home and business owners, thus received bonus scores."

The report remarks that Sociologists have identified another new group - Young Urban Females (YUFS) and estimate that there are more than ten million YUFS in the UK, and the number is multiplying at a significant rate, with nearly half a million more young women set to meet the criteria in the next year.

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