MP backs drive to trip up lap dancers
Jul 7 2008 by Neil Mckay, The Journal
A FORMER Government Chief Whip has joined a North East Labour colleague in calling for stronger legislation to allow local authorities to ban unwanted lap dancing clubs.
Derwentside District Council’s licensing committee granted an application for Red Velvet to open as a lap-dancing club above a chip shop in Consett, County Durham, in January last year, despite objections from over 2,000 locals.
Now Hilary Armstrong, MP for North West Durham, has written to the chief executives of Wear Valley and Derwentside District Council asking for their support for potential new legislation which would give greater powers to local authorities to turn down applications for lap dancing clubs.
Because no objections were received from police, child protection agencies, fire authorities, environmental or planning agencies, the Derwentside committee was powerless to reject the application by 22-year-old entrepreneur Sudkev (Sonny) Gill to open the club.
Critics say it is the Government’s own rules that made it impossible to reject the application.
Yet people in Durham, just 13 miles away, successfully fought an application to open a similar club in North Road.
Ms Armstrong said: “Currently, lap dancing clubs are licensed in the same way as bars and restaurants when they are obviously very different in nature. I believe that lap dancing clubs should be placed under the category of ‘sex encounter establishments’ for licensing purposes – this will enable inappropriate applications to be refused.
“I am pleased that the Government has listened to calls from concerned residents and MPs and is currently in the process of consulting local councils for their opinions.”
The UK’s first lap dance club opened in 1995 – and critics say the licensing regime has enabled the numbers of clubs to rise to at least 300.
Durham MP Roberta Blackman-Woods, who backed the fight against the North Road plan, said while it is not impossible for councils to turn down such plans, it is too difficult. She outlined her concerns in Parliament during the introduction of her Sex Encounter Establishments (Licensing) Bill.
She said: “I realised the Government could either go on, trying to convince local authorities that they did have sufficient powers to turn down lap dancing clubs – or simply amend the legislation and make it easier for them to be refused when they are inappropriate.”
