New shops sign our petition – total up to 66

We are pleased to announce that around 30 new shops signed today – they are as unhappy with the idea of a lap dancing club in Crouch End as we are

Powder
Hornsey Agencies
Baby Ceylon
MP4 Salons
Broadway Fruiterer
Kudos Film and TV
Broadway Dry Cleaners
SAS newsmart
Hot Pepper Jelly
Canlar (14 Broadway)
Indish
The Electric Market
J and S superstore (21 Broadway)
Minikin
Queens Pub
Clocktower launderette
Coffee & Cake
Paint shop
Beauty Detox Spa
Rez’s Barbers
MEB Motors (163 Tottenham Lane)
Original Features
KH Patel Hornsey Ltd
SIPS Bar
Rodriguez News
Curry Club
Hart 2 Hart
Yilmaz (125 Tottenham lane)
Hornsey Supermarket
Saigrace Pharmacy
Laikia’s Cafe

Check our full list here

We hope the owners feel as isolated now as we did when we found out what they were planning.

Crime levels in Crouch End are already high – and Somerfield are taking action against late-night troublemakers

On Friday, there was yet another assault in Crouch End. There are two police posters in Figo’s cafe asking for information on violent crimes in Crouch End. And the Somerfield store, which is virtually opposite the Music Palace, has decided that it is going to stop providing a full 24-hour service. There was just too much aggravation and trouble for the people working there late at night, and they have reluctantly taken the decision to provide a hatch-only service between the hours of midnight and 6 am, to reduce the likelihood of their staff being threatened. Crime levels in this area are already high, and there is clearly concern among shopkeepers in the vicinity of the Music Palace about the safety of their staff late at night. Groups of sexually aroused men, probably intoxicated to some extent, leaving a lap dancing club in the early hours of the morning are hardly going to make this situation any better. This is an area where we need policies that are going to reduce crime, not add to it.

Negative Equity

Crouch End on the 15th may?

One of the many problems in having a strip club as your neighbour is when you try and sell your house. Yes, should Haringey decide to give Mr Hassan and Ms Ziya their license on the 14th May, there is a good chance your house will be worth a lot less (on average 15%) than it was. So should you decide that you have had enough of cleaning up the vomit from your front garden, or dodging pimps and prostitutes on your way to buy a pint of milk from Somerfield, good luck trying to sell – would you move to an area with a lap dancing bar?

Not that Piers Warne (solicitor) or Mr Hassan care – Piers excitedly shouted “It doesn’t matter!!” and Mr Hassan actually smirked when this was brought up at the infamous meeting with the residents at the Music Palace last month.

‘My sickening encounter with vermin in lap-dance clubs … their existence degrades us all’

Thanks for sending this in – in the mail last year

On Saturday, the Mail published an investigation into the growing number of ‘gentlemen’s clubs’ opening in High Streets around the country. A change in legislation has meant that in the past four years the number of these venues, where girls dance semi-clad or naked, has doubled. But what really goes on inside them? We sent columnist Amanda Platell to find out . . .

Full story here

EXCLUSIVE – SPECIAL GUEST SHORT LIST REVEALED

The owner of the Music Palace is apparently so confident that he will get his licence that he is planning a ‘Special Guest’ to open his new venture.

Showing that we are not bitter, we have decide to help him out by suggesting a few candidates

1) Richard Timney (Jacqui Smith’s husband)

Maybe he could claim a private dance on expenses?

2) Peter Stringfellow

You just don’t get hair like that anymore – it’s beautiful

3) Freddy Shepherd

This lovely man was Newcastle United chairman, famous for being caught on a secret camera saying “Me, I like blondes, big bust, good legs. I don’t like coloured girls. I want a lesbian show with handcuffs…” He is a business man, though.

And here is a list of who will NOT be invited

1) Hugh Grant

The 1995 version of Hugh will maybe have been attracted to Tottenham Lane’s forthcoming prostitutes (Haringey have confirmed that lap dance bars can attract prostitutes, so forget about suing us) but the 2009 version seems to have got his act together, and even acts occasionally these days

2) Boris Johnson

‘BJ’ would unfortunatly fail the Music Palace strict dress code

3) Any resident from Crouch End, or any shop owner. Or anybody who has had sex with a consenting partner in the last 10 years.

People left exposed by Lap Dancing legislation

Thanks for the campaigner that sent this in – this is actually from last year but very much still relevant

Local people’s views on lap-dancing clubs are going unheard and unheeded because of a loophole in the licensing laws, council leaders will warn today.

The number of lap-dancing venues in Britain has doubled to around 300 since 2004 and in a letter to ministers, the Local Government Association will call for an urgent amendment to give authorities more control over the situation.

The 2003 Licensing Act puts the clubs in the same category as bars and cafes rather than considering them as places of sexual entertainment.

It means residents’ concerns about the kind of customers which may be attracted or the suitability of a specific location cannot be taken into account.

One example which highlights the problem is that of Southwark Council, which was unable to use the proximity of a venue to a cathedral as grounds to refuse a licence. A club was only prevented from opening by a clause in the lease for the premises concerned.

The LGA has written to Gerry Sutcliffe at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as part of a consultation on the issue, which closes today, and the response has also been sent to Vernon Coaker at the Home Office and Minister for Women, Harriet Harman.

The letter from Vice Chairman, Sir Jeremy Beecham, said:

“The new licensing laws were intended to give local people more of a say on how pubs and clubs are run in their area but when it comes to lap-dancing establishments councils often find there’s little they can do to respond to people’s wishes.

“The law as it stands does not allow councils to consider the type of entertainment being provided or any concerns about the impact it may have on surrounding homes and businesses.

“It’s a loophole which needs closing.

“Local democracy depends on people being able to voice their opinions, and on councils being able to consider those views.

“Our towns and cities should be shaped as far as possible according to residents’ wishes, not by the presence of unwanted lap-dancing clubs in the heart of them.”

Another 650 people sign up to our petition

Many thanks to all those who stood in the rain and sleet yesterday to add anonther 650 names to our petition – we estimate that are now well on our way to 2000 names – proving without a doubt that the Music Palace will be well and truly isolated if they go ahead (and the council let them) with this proposal.

The Daily Mail today

We are in today’s mail – happy with the piece, but don’t agree that it is a foregone conclusion at the meeting. 

Many thanks to Daniel for this

A lapdancing club is to open opposite a nursery despite massive opposition.

The location of the Music Palace has been described by campaigners as ‘the most inappropriate in Britain’.

Two schools and a YMCA which houses vulnerable youths are also nearby.

Seven schools are in the wider area and a bus stop used by teenage schoolgirls is a few yards away from the front doors.

 

Neighbours: The intended Music Palace club (circled), with the gates of Rokesly infant and junior schools on the left. The site also houses a nursery

The club is due to open at 11am so clients and strippers will be arriving and leaving as the nursery closes and when children go home from school.

Residents in the North London suburb of Crouch End fear that girls will be intimidated by the clients and that there will be an increase in sex assaults.

After being told in a letter six weeks ago about the plan to vary the licence of the Music Palace, parents formed a campaign group called Lap Off!

The group has collected more than 1,000 signatures of protest, traders have expressed their opposition and councillors and MPs are against it.

 

Disgusted: Resident Lindsay Wright

However, because the application meets all the criteria under Labour’s 2003 Licensing Act, already condemned for bringing in 24-hour drinking, Haringey Council and police say they are powerless to oppose it.

The proposals are due to be waved through by the council at a licensing hearing in May.

Management consultant Alison Lillystone, who has 16-year- old daughter and is leading the campaign, said: ‘If a lapdancing club can open here it can open anywhere.’

The Music Palace is over the road from Rokesly infant and junior schools, along with the adjoining nursery.

Nearby is the Hornsey School for Girls, a comprehensive for 1,400 girls aged 11 to 18.

Mrs Lillystone, 49, added: ‘Our concern is over safety. Girls will feel intimidated by people coming out of the club and will be leered at. Teenage girls are going to be a target for men coming out of the club. They won’t be able to walk around without being hassled.’

Lindsay Wright, 40, who has three children including an eight-year-old girl, said: ‘Lapdancing clubs are destroying the face of Britain’s High Streets and making the lives of residents and local businesses a misery.’

Crouch End councillor David Winskill added: ‘It’s the most inappropriate place in Britain for a lapdancing club.’

The number of lapdancing establishments in Britain has doubled from 150 in 2004 to more than 300 today, with a club opening almost every week.

Their proliferation is due to the Licensing Act 2003 which made it as easy to open a lapdancing club as to start up a cafe.

Piers Warne, of solicitors Popplestone Allen, which represents Serdal Ziya, who is applying to open the club, said his client had ‘taken on board’ the residents’ concerns.

But he added: ‘There are far worse places to have a lapdancing club.’

Piers Warne enters our competition!!! I will write to him to ask for clarification – but I fully expect my email to be ignored like any other requests for information.

Link to article (with comments) here

Arsenal FC endorse Lap Off!

Well, sort of.. Many thanks to the Arsenal press office for this email. John Carew (Aston Villa) was fined £110 000 for attending a lap dancing bar in Birmingham, so I think it’s safe to say that Cesc Fabregas will not be coming to Crouch End any day soon.

Dear Lap Off!,

Thank you for your email.

We certainly understand the merits behind your campaign, however
unfortunately will not be able to comment on it specifically from a Club
prospective. As I am sure you would understand all staff members at the
Club, including players, are obviously expected to behave in an
appropriate way however we cannot go into details on what ‘rules’ apply
to different individuals at the Club.

I do wish you success with your campaign however.

Kind regards,

Felicity George
Communications Department 
Arsenal Football Club
http://www.arsenal.com

 

Newham reject lap dancing

The Victoria Cross pub in Newham

Fairly similar application blocked by the council – thanks to the Newham Recorder for sending this email –

No to poll dancing at Victoria Cross – People’s win

27 March 2009

A HUGE people’s protest has seen off plans that could have allowed Newham its first pole dancing club.

Overwhelming opposition to the erotic dance concept came from residents, children’s groups, businesses and East Ham MP Steve Timms.

And it persuaded councillors this week to reject the bid by publican Jag Sandhu for a performance licence.

He wants to stage entertainment “in the form of pole dancing’, ‘stripper’ and nudity” at his Victoria Cross pub and it sparked an outcry in the Manor Park neighbourhood.

He was granted a new drinks licence – the original had been surrendered by the previous owner – for the pub’s ground floor covering seven days between the hours of 10am to 11pm, but not for two rear beer gardens.

But they refused him a licence for “the performance of dance and the playing of recorded and live music nor is any similar entertainment of that nature.”