Please take a few minutes to help change legislation regarding lap dancing clubs....

[orangina]

I really don't want this to descend into a bun fight about whether lap dancing clubs are degrading or empowering to women, so I am prefacing this by saying THIS IS NOT A MORAL CRUSADE... This isn't about whether lap dancing clubs should or shouldn't have a place in our society, but more about asking you to help tighten a loophole in current legislation...

We are currently fighting an application locally for a lap dancing club to open in the local boozer, more or less bang in the middle of a residential area, next to the library and 100+ m from 2 primary schools and 2 nurseries. Lovely. The application consultation period is now over, and the public hearing for the application is scheduled for a few weeks time. We are hoping that the application will be turned down by the Council (900+ valid letters of objection raised), but are also certain that the Applicant will appeal.

Meanwhile, there are Government plans to reform existing legislation to give Local Authorities more power to reject these kinds of applications (which currently are about as easy to get through as a coffee shop or booze license). This could be pushed through as early as November if lobbying is successful. If it goes through then, then our chances at Appeal are greater.

So, please would you consider writing to your local MP to make sure that the changes to lap dancing bill is included in this November's Police Crime Reduction Bill? If we miss this Bill, the next opoportunity will not be until March 2009 at the earliest. This isn't just about not having a lap dancing club on our own doorstep, but given the spread of these establishments in inappropriate locations (residential areas, next to the library, etc...), ensuring that if an application is lodged with your own local Council, then you are in a position to be able to object and know it will actually carry some weight.

Here are a few useful links....

List of MPs here...

Model letter to send to MP here...

Some background to the shortcomings of current legislation here...

Every letter will count. Many thanks!

I can't see how anyone would think a residential area is the right place for a lap dancing club.

Lord above you get find £££££££'s for a stray bit of scrap hanging out of your bin or putting it out too soon but a lap dancing club plus colourful advertising blurb is fine? does not compute

Good luck orangina

Thanks everyone, please do write to your MPs if you do in any way agree that the legislation should be changed...
Hi UncleHester... yes we must be neighbours! It is N.E. Rd we're talking about. Our local MPs are on the case, we have their backing (both tory and labour, woohoo), but the more letters that get written, the better I think.

(another bump)

tra la la

I think you need to think though about what you want this legislation to achieve.

Essentially what you seem to be saying is that you don't want these clubs to be allowed to be opened anywhere too public. But what is the alternative? I'll tell you. The alternative is that if you force these clubs to be less public they will start to open in the back alleys so it will all essentially be seedier than it all already is and underground at that.

I don't like them and God help my dh if he ever visited one. But I'd rather they were in public view than tucked away somewhere where people had to go looking for them, the more discrete they are, the less likely they are to be adhearing to the law imo.

What I want the legislation to acheive is to classify these places for what they are: Sex Encounter Establishments. Then the local authorities have a bit of power to decide whether a particular license application is appropriate or not. I don't want to drive these places underground, but hoping that they are located in commercial areas rather than residential areas seems sensible, don't you think?

but they're not sex encouter establishments. Yes some sex encounters may occur as result of dancers taking extra payment from punters, but none of that is above board or legal.

They are dancing clubs not brothels. And while I don't like them the people who work there and the people who visit them do so by their own free will.

by the same token do you think that say, Ann Summers, or Lasenza should be classed as sex encounter establishments? After all women generally buy the products sold in these establishments with the purpose of seducing men.

But it is sexual. Of course it's sexual. I have less of a problem with our local brothel which is very discrete (pretending it is a sauna / massage parlour etc). Never worried about explaining that to dds. And I do worry about sexually aroused men leaving the club when I'm going home. That report from Camden proves that my worries are well founded too.

Orangina, I too am a local resident here in sunny W14 and I am OUTRAGED that this planning application is being considered. Thank you so much for raising public awareness of the ridiculous state of the law that classes lapdancing clubs in the same band as coffee shops and pubs - apparently all due to a HUGE oversight by the Dept of Culture, Media and Sport a few years ago...

I walked past the place on my way to the local library (it really is literally next door to the club) this week and was struck again by the absolute madness of this whole application. Am hoping that the enormous response from local residents might put a stop to it - we'll see.

wannaBe, if I followed your argument through to its logical conclusion, then M&S undies dept would be classed as well (with the purpose of seducing men etc...).

A SEX ENCOUNTER is fairly distinct from buying a nurses outfit or some chocolate body paint.

"The acts performed by the dancers are so intimate and explicit that they constitute a halfway house to paying for sex," writes Nick Horley, reporting on his own visit to a lap-dancing club, in the New Statesman: "This is not just striptease: it is quasi-sex, skillfully presented as legitimate, harmless and socially responsible. It had the effect of persuading me that full, paid-for sex, something I had thought my inhibitions and ethics would never permit, was a logical, acceptable next step."

bellabelly, did you object to the license application? Come along to the hearing on November 6th (CAT me for more details...). There is possibly a requirement for the Applicant to submit a planning application as well, in which case there will something else to object to (and in any case, even if he gets the liense to lap dance, he won't be able to operate without planning all in order...)

Either DH or I will be there - just got an email yesterday about it. You need to register quite soon to be allowed to speak! I think quite a few people from where I live are planning to go...

Either DH or I will be there - just got an email yesterday about it. You need to register quite soon to be allowed to speak! I think quite a few people from where I live are planning to go...

oops, double post. And yes, I did object.

Am registering to speak myself bellabelly, maybe see you there?!

(am a public speaking coward, but feel strongly enough about it to drink a few gallons of rescue remedy beforehand...)

Better late than never. I have emailed my MP today.

Brilliant, thanks blueshoes.... if we can get the application turned down by the council next week, then he will almost certainly appeal... and if we can stall that while (hopefully) the legislation change goes through in November, we have a real chance of benefitting from that change in legislation. Even if we don't benefit from it ourselves, I still beleive that lap dancing clubs should not be allowed to open on the back of a coffee shop license.....