Update on lap dancing club hearing in Bristol

[JessInAvalon]

Hi all
Just an update for those of you who were interested.

A licensing sub-committee consisting of three men in their late 60s/early 70s decided to grant the licence for Urban Tiger in Bristol yesterday, despite 57 objections from residents, the university feminist society, the City Canon, gender violence experts etc etc.

The company had the top licensing barrister in the country acting for them - the man who worked with Object to push the SEV legislation through.

The company wheeled out an "independent" private investigator - a retired police officer, whom they had paid to observe the club inside and out and he reported back to the committee at least 3 times in the 30 minutes I was there that there were no problems inside and outside the club (yes, we were all very surprised at this startling revelation). There was slight touch of his knee by a lap dancer's head when he was having a private dance but that was purely accidental apparently - though what her head was doing down by his knee we can only speculate!

We presented several reasons why the licence should be refused - inappropriate location, failure to disclose relevant information on the application form, mismanagement of another club in Southampton which they closed a week before the application in Bristol went in, and which left several businesses in the area owed money. Despite that, they could afford to pay the top licensing barrister in the country, who will have been on several thousand a day, to come and put their case.

It was really disappointing that the licensing committee members didn't take on board anything we had said to them or have been saying for years now. They did grant the licence but with conditions so that's one good thing. The club were trying to operate with a reduced number of CCTV cameras in the private booths but we think that's been refused though will have to wait for the papers to be issued.

Thanks to everyone who was supportive when I last posted!

The next and last hearing is for Temptations in Old Market on 17th October at 11am at City Hall so for those who are interested please do come along to the public gallery and be a "body in the room".

Well done Jess.

Not the best outcome you'd hope for but your hard work is definitely slowing the floodgates. Keep going.

Reiterating what bunnylion says. Do you know when the next hearing is? I couldn't make the one on Monday but would love to lend my support.

Thanks both. Any support would be great.

The next hearing is for Temptations on Thursday 17th October, 11am at City Hall. Would love to have more people there.

Was so afraid I'd come on and see critical messages so thanks for your words of encouragement.

Sending a message of support too. And thanks for the update. I have read your posts before Jess and I know how much you and other women have put into this. We just have to keep chipping away.

Interesting info about the expensive barrister and the debts left behind elsewhere. Do you suspect criminal activity? Thanks for the update, sending moral support, you have been doing amazing work raising awareness. One day people will wake up to all this, we just have to keep on keeping on.

Interesting only 9 objections to Central Chamber and 57 against Urban Tiger. As the number of SEVs has been set at 3 unless the venue has had multiple infringements of its license can't see the objections carrying that much weight. Would be interested to find out why so few bothered about Central Chambers.

I can imagine that barrister is going to get a lot of work round the country which is probably why he helped with setting the guidelines in the first place.

Thanks all.

I think Central Chambers deliberately submitted their objection over Christmas to ensure there were fewer objections. And I think the council may have cocked up in getting the details on the website so there wasn't the full amount of time there usually is to complain.

As for whether there has been criminal activity in the clubs, we can only speculate!

Ooh I might be able to do 17th. I'll see what I can do

Fair play to the licensing committee. 57 objections is a pathetically low number, especially when compared to the number of objections received for other planning applications, which can run into thousands.
Surely it's time to accept that the vast majority of people don't have a problem with these venues ? why should a tiny minority of less than one percent be able to dictate these things?

If we are going to use the numbers argument, there was no one there in support of the club at the hearing and about 8 people who had turned to to object. So 8 to 0 in that case!

I've had to sit and listen to make colleagues discussing the body parts of the strippers they saw at the weekend. I don't choose to go to them but they've impacted on my life in several ways. Friends have been harassed by men waiting outside the clubs-things like "get your tits out and save us a fiver" have been shouted out. No matter what controls they put inside the club, they can't control what goes on outside.

57 objections is a lot for a process that is quite complex and hard to navigate. Councils do not make it easy for people to object!

Hi Scallopsrgreat-if you can come on the 17th that would be great. I'll be in touch via Twitter (we follow each other now!). I can fill you in on the club too. It's the one that was fined for licence breaches recently. I wonder if they will have paid an "independent" consultant to come in and tell the committee that everything is fine in the club now like the lot on Monday did.

How do you know that?

because not many people object to them. You can't argue the numbers. For example my local lap dancing club received 65 objection letters and some 200 odd letters of support. Now compare this to a proposed Sainsbury's local store that wanted convert a closed down pub, in the same area as the lap dancing club. This received over 2000 objections.

That's the thing about minority rights. They are exercised by a minority, and sometimes imposed on a majority. One example would be sexual harassment in the workplace. You may work in a place where the walls are adorned by page 3 photographs and where porn is shown in the lunchroom. It would only take one employee to say that that atmosphere amounted to sexual harassment and the photos would have to come down and the porn switched off.

well a work place and a place of entertainment are totally different situations so it's not a fair comparison. Even so i think bowing down to minorities who get offended by every little thing is getting ridiculous too. If you take that to it's logical conclusion then we'd have a George Orwell's 1984 situation.

I've had to sit and listen to make colleagues discussing the body parts of the strippers they saw at the weekend. I don't choose to go to them but they've impacted on my life in several ways.

Maybe you should get the thought police onto them?

Friends have been harassed by men waiting outside the clubs-things like "get your tits out and save us a fiver" have been shouted out. No matter what controls they put inside the club, they can't control what goes on outside.

well anyone can make up stories of being harassed outside clubs. I'm afraid Object have cried wolf far too many times already on this matter. Yeah i saw the leaked e-mail that encouraged it's members to write into councils to say they had been harassed while walking past clubs. You have to wonder why they spend so much time loitering outside these places in the early hours? (it doesn't add up) If you really are worried about harassment then you should look to your standard nightclubs/ bars instead. The police stats will confirm that the crime rates in the vicinity of these are rather high, compared to lap dancing clubs where there is virtually no trouble at all.

57 objections is a lot for a process that is quite complex and hard to navigate. Councils do not make it easy for people to object!

You can just send them an e-mail or write a letter to their address, stating why you want to object. There's nothing more to it than that. What a lot of people don't know is that you can write into support an application or attend the meeting. On my local council site it only mentions about objections and it seems to be the same on many others.

Thanks Jess, seen you've followed. I'm also on your FB to so I can message you through there as well if you like.

Sending solidarity to you too, Jess. Thank you for standing up to be counted about this.

Thanks again all. I do really appreciate your words of support.

Scallopsrgreat-yes, please do get in touch on Facebook. I'll be posting about it nearer the time.
Thanks!