Lap dancers at a Bristol club have been giving customers more fun than the miserable council allowed. One performer has been suspended and two have been reprimanded by bosses for kissing and other physical contact.
Magistrates fined the venue
around £16,500 for five licensing breaches. Temptations' manager Valerie Hoare was also ordered to pay £1,550 for two breaches.
Bristol Magistrates Court heard how CCTV from Temptations examined after an unannounced visit from
licensing staff in January showed three dancers getting closer than the council allowed in the private booths .
Bristol's Sexual Entertainment Venue licence states that customers and performers are not allowed to touch each other during a
performance. But the prosecution said: The footage from all three cameras showed extensive and repeated contact between customers and performers. The court heard this included one stripper holding a customer's face and giving him a kiss while he
had his hands on her buttocks. Other footage showed a dancer sitting on a customer's lap, while in another booth a performer touched a man's leg with hers.
Recommended by Nutters
A handful of Bristol miserablists have raised a
petition calling for the closure of Bristol's two table dancing clubs and its only lap dancing club at Temptations.
The petitioners are recommending:
- Central Chambers 9 St Stephen's St, Bristol BS1 1EE
- Urban Tiger 4 Broad Quay, Bristol BS1 4DA
- Temptations T3 46 West St, Bristol BS2 0BH
Offsite: Counter petition
7th September 2013. See article from
southwestbusiness.co.uk
Update: Counter petition outstrips nutter petition
11th September 2013. See
article from
southwestbusiness.co.uk
As of yesterday afternoon, the nutter petition had 166 signatures, but in only four days the pro lap dancing one had already garnered support
from 271 people.
Carrie Hale's online petition went live on Friday in response to one started last month. It reads:
This petition calls that Bristol City Council allow lap dancing clubs, gentlemen's clubs, strip
clubs and pole dancing clubs, otherwise known as SEVs, to operate in Bristol.
The licensing policy has already been implemented and decided that the suitable number of SEVs in Bristol was three, with two other venues being forced
to close to reduce numbers.
There is huge demand for these venues, otherwise they would not exist and they do not only cater for men.
The women and men that work in these venues are not exploited, neither
are they forced to work in such venues.
The people of Bristol should have a choice to visit such establishments and by having a nil cap this choice will be taken away.
The petition runs until January 22 and can
be signed at epetitions.bristol.gov.uk/epetition_core/community/petition/2386 .
Update: Licence Granted
18th September 2013. See article from
sevlicensing.wordpress.com
9 objections from the public were received about the renewal of a licence of Central Chambers. It has been reported that this was renewed
yesterday (16th Sept) with some fairly colourful language apparently used by a campaigner to describe the head of the three-strong licensing committee.
Feminist campaigner Bristol_Jane was live tweeting yesterday's hearing at City Hall,
during which she called Conservative group leader Peter Abraham a sexist, misogynistic fuckface . The offending tweet has now been removed.