Lap Dancing License Change

Major music venues in central London face having their licences revoked if they continue staging burlesque events.

Camden council has warned that any establishment putting on burlesque will be treated as a strip club and have to pass repressive licensing procedures.

The move jeopardises the future of shows at some of the biggest venues in the capital, such as the Roundhouse, KoKo and the Proud Gallery.

Burlesque - which features partial nudity and striptease - is considered art by its advocates and distinct from the activities of lap-dancing clubs.

Performers such as Dita Von Teese have led a resurgence in burlesque which has attracted a celebrity following including the likes of George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

But Camden has deemed burlesque too risqué for normal pubs and clubs and has told venues they must reapply for adult entertainment licences as officials insist it should be classed as adult entertainment of a sexual nature.

The council said: Camden's licensing policy states that any premises in the borough that wishes to offer entertainment involving nudity, striptease or other entertainment of an adult nature will need approval from the licensing authority - burlesque falls within this criteria.

Comment: Spokespillock

30th April 2009, thanks to Alan

You cite a spokespillock from Camden saying: burlesque falls within this criteria

Shouldn't a sanctimonious twat who wants to use posh foreign words at least master grammar? THIS CRITERIA????? Singular: criterion; plural: criteria.
This criterion or these criteria ! Gottit?

American burlesque artist Dita Von Teese has urged her fellow performers to defy a new law banning nightclubs from having stripper shows without a licence, saying it is what makes risqué dance routines exciting.

The artist is adamant that strippers should always strive to bend the rules, as it is a tradition in the saucy trade.

It’s not unusual for burlesque to be regulated because it always has been, and the stars of burlesque from the past had to deal with it, Contactmusic quoted her as saying.

The challenges of getting around the laws and the risque element were always a part of what made burlesque exciting. Perhaps these clubs will install the historic `red light, green light` that they had in burlesque clubs to tell the performers whether the cops were in the house or not, she added.

Roberta Blackman-Woods, the mean minded MP representing Durham, has welcomed the fact that the Policing and Crime Bill has passed its final parliamentary hurdle, with amendments between the two Houses of Parliament resolved.

The Bill contains provisions to restrict the licensing of lap dancing clubs, which Roberta campaigned for and persuaded the Government to include.

Blackman-Woods said : The new licensing regime will give local councils and local people far more of a say over the number and location of lap dance clubs in their area.

Despite Liberal Democrat amendments in the Lords supporting the lap dancing industry which would have substantially weakened the Bill, the Government held firm and made sure that local people would come first and that lap dance clubs would be subject to strict but fair licensing arrangements. The Government has also announced that it is conducting a review of the whole issue of 'Temporary Event Notices' which is something I have been pressing for.

I will be urging Durham County Council to adopt the provisions and use the powers this Act will give it to as soon as possible.

The nightclub boss Peter Stringfellow has warned that he would appeal under human rights laws if he was forced to close his lapdancing clubs under new government regulations.

Hundreds of lap-dancing clubs will have to seek new licences under powers that are expected to force some premises to close. The new licensing regime will start on April 6, when clubs will be called sexual entertainment venues . They will all have to apply for a fresh licence.

Local councils in England and Wales will be able to ban clubs from opening near schools or other buildings in quiet or busy neighbourhoods. The public will be given the right to oppose an application to open a club on the basis that the premises are inappropriate .

Stringfellow and the Lap Dancing Association are threatening to go to the European Court of Human Rights if any club given specific permission to conduct lap dancing loses its licence. They claim that loss of the licence breaches human rights because it deprives them of their possession.

Stringfellow said that the regulations had been brought forward because Jacqui Smith, the former Home Secretary, and Harriet Harman, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, were entranced by the radical feminist organisation known as the Fawcett Society .

Lap dancing clubs could use the Human Rights Act to oppose legislation allowing councils greater freedom to turn down lap-dancing licence applications, venue owners say.

The Policing and Crime Act forces existing lap-dancing clubs to apply for new licences and allows councils to close venues for moralistic reasons.

Chris Knight, president of the Lap-Dancing Association (LDA), said clubs could take their appeals to the European Court of Justice. If local authorities don't give us new licences, they are effectively taking away our right to property and to do business, as outlined in the Human Rights Act, and we will consider taking it as far as we have to in the courts, he said.

Local councils are likely to vigorously defend the legislation. Richard Kemp, vice-chairman of the Local Government Association (LGA), said: If they want a legal showdown, then we're going to test the depths of their pockets, because we're certainly going to test ours.

Club owners argue that the legislation could infringe their right to property protection. The issue involves article 8 of the Human Rights Act which concerns the right to protection of private property, and activities pursuant to that property, said licensing lawyer Richard Arnot. If an existing lap-dancing licence is your property, then you have the right to run a lap-dancing club, and the new legislation is arguably an infringement of that right.

Julian Skeens, head of licensing law at Jeffrey Green Russell and the LDA's solicitor, said appeal cases were likely to take a long time, and clubs could remain in business for some time.

The situation has angered nutter groups that pushed for the new law. Anna van Heeswijk, campaigns co-ordinator of Object, said: Human rights legislation exists to safeguard against discrimination and to promote principles of local democracy, not to protect the rights of club owners to make a profit.

Strip clubs across Britain are facing closure as an increasing number of councils use new laws to ban them. Local authorities are at varying stages of implementing licensing changes to close clubs and businesses.

There are about 300 clubs in Britain and many opened after a relaxation of the licensing law in 2003. A subsequent 2009 law rebranded lap dancing, pole dancing, and strip clubs as sex entertainment venues gave councils new morality controls.

Ten councils, given the power to impose repressive restrictions, have already opted for nil policies which will refuse applications for any new venues.

Among them is Tower Hamlets Council in East London. It is supposedly awaiting the result of a public consultation whilst keenly anticipating the closure of 11 clubs in the borough.

In Leicester three clubs were denied licences last week while in the City of London repressive licensing rules saw its only club decline to apply.

Enfield Council in North London, one of a number of local authorities to ban the clubs despite never having had any. It passed a motion last month, under the slogan no sex please, we're Enfield , which stated that it would not allow new clubs.

Elsewhere in London, Hackney, Haringey, and the City of London have all capped their quotas for new clubs at zero, though Hackney has made one area, Haggerston, an exception for existing clubs.

Islington, which has four clubs, has also voted in a nil policy on new venues. Richmond upon Thames has adopted a nil policy on new venues and its last remaining venue will hear its fate next month.

Cambridge City Council brought in new licensing laws in June and its only club declined to apply.

Newcastle City Council capped the number of clubs at five, and all are having licences considered. There are a further 15 occasional venues , many of which have not applied.

Update: Appeal

28th January 2012. See  article from  thisisleicestershire.co.uk

A lap-dancing club has appealed against the arbitrary refusal of a licence to allow it to continue trading. Angels, in Braunstone Gate, West End, Leicester, faces having to close or cease its shows by the end of March, unless it can overturn the decision by Leicester City Council.

Leicester councillors said they were concerned the application was being made on behalf of a third party for someone they would not grant a licence to. Councillors also claimed the club was not in an 'appropriate' location given that a sports centre is being built by De Montfort University, in nearby Dun's Lane.

The council's head of licensing, Mike Broster, said Angels had appealed on both grounds and the case was due to be heard by magistrates at a date yet to be set.

Well, many readers may have heard of research being carried out by Professor Phil Hubbard on Sexual Entertainment venues. The initial results are in, and although the full results are not due until March 2013, I have been given permission to produce a synopsis of the report. I will say at the outset of this post that the majority of the report is not surprising and does no harm to the industry; there is one sticking point which I will discuss in more detail and explain why I feel that it is not likely to affect the industry.

There are 241 licensed premises regularly offering lap dancing or striptease in England and Wales. Nearly half (43%) of those applying for a Sexual Entertainment Venue (SEV) license have received no formal objections at all. This doesn't really come as much of a surprise: most people are not bothered about the venues and there tends to be only a small handful of complainants who may write in. Given that Portsmouth managed to obtain a massive response following a very vocal campaign by pressure groups to get the clubs shut down, with 113 against and over 3000 for the venues, the fact that some clubs receive no objections at all should not surprise anyone.

A survey of residents in towns and cities with lap dance clubs suggests that around one in five were not even aware there was an SEV operating in their town or city! Fewer than one in ten identified an SEV as a particular source of local nuisance, and in some locations this was considerably lower. Once again not a surprise, as we have seen previously from my report on crime that the belief that venues are an issue for police is a fallacy.

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