This lap dancing club “will provide employment to the area”

So said applicants solicitor Piers Warne (of Popplestone Allen) at the infamous meeting at the Music Palace back in march. We may have scoffed – but it would appear that he may have been on to something

From the ‘Coventry Telegraph’

THE JobCentre has defended a decision to advertise a vacancy for a nude lap dancer in Coventry.

Shocked jobseekers came across the ad on the JobCentre Plus website as they browsed through a range of job roles which are available in the city.

The advert appeals for attractive and confident women who who are prepared to dance naked at a local lap dancing club to apply for the position.

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2009/08/27/naked-lap-dancer-advert-sparks-row-92746-24541268/1/

Apparently they are offering to pay the FULL minimum wage to successful applicants – that’s nice of them.

Follow us on Twitter

http://twitter.com/lapoff

David Cameron doesn’t like Twitter, but if you want to keep up to date with the campaign, we will publish any news, or new blog post notifications.

Hornsey Journal – Over 2000 sign petition

COMMENT – To put this into prospective – the Lap Dancing Association compiled a NATIONAL petition and got just 3000 signatures – we pulled in 1200 physical signatures in just 2 saturdays outside Budgens. A great effort from Crouch End.

Full Story

A 2,000-signature petition demanding Haringey Council throws out a bid to open a lap dancing club in Crouch End has been lodged by campaigners.

Members of the Lap Off! group, along with Hornsey MP Lynne Featherstone and Crouch End Councillor David Winskill, handed the document to Haringey Council licensing officers yesterday (Wednesday).

It demands the owners of Music Palace in Tottenham Lane, who hope to win an adult entertainment licence, are turned down.

Lindsay Wright, Lap Off! member, said: “Everybody is against it – people who work here, live here, who have kids who go to school here.

“This has been going on for months now and we want to be able to get the decision we want and get it thrown out once and for all.”

Since February, when Music Palace’s owners announced their intention to transform the former Salvation Army citadel hall from a bar to a gentleman’s club, 2,100 signatures have been collected.

The plan provoked anger from many who claim the venue’s proximity to schools, the YMCA and family homes, makes it unsuitable for saucy entertainment most often enjoyed by businessmen and stag parties.

The petition calls the location “totally unacceptable” and says: “If agreed it will produce unacceptable noise, stimulate a wider range of anti-social behaviour and make women and girls in our community feel less safe.”

Councillor Winskill (Liberal Democrat) reiterated support for campaigners and said: “This totally inappropriate application has really touched a raw nerve among the residents of Haringey.

“Delivering this petition shows the scale of opposition and Crouch End’s determination to fight this off.”

Councillors on Haringey’s licensing committee will consider the application on Thursday, September 10, and campaigners have appealed to the community to attend the meeting at Haringey Civic Centre.

“Our rallying call is for people to come, don’t think I don’t need to go because campaigners have got it all covered and I’m sure it won’t get through,” said Ms Wright. “We need your strength of opposition and support right the way through. Please, please turn up.

Petition handed in today

Had a photocall today with Lap Off activists Cllr David Winskill and MP Lynne Featherstone to mark the handing in of the petition and other documentory evidence we will need for the hearing on the 1oth. In the end we had over 2100 signatures as well as the Shop’s petition which numbered over 60. Many thanks for all who took part in getting this together, and of course, to all who signed.

Billy Ray Cyrus describes Miley’s pole dancing moves as “art”

Comment – I hate Hannah Montana – for anyone who has a daughter and a Disney Channel subscription, no further comment is necessary.

Anyway here is a link to the story if anyone is interested

http://blog.taragana.com/e/2009/08/24/billy-ray-cyrus-describes-mileys-pole-dancing-moves-as-art-27136/

You want art? Check this out

Petition handing in

Wednesday 26th August – we are not delivering our petition etc to the Civic Centre. Instead we are taking them to Licensing in Tottenham.

The documents we deliver have to be scanned in so they can be shared with the applicants. If we take them to the Civic, it will be another day before they get to Tottenham and would be late and ruled inadmissible.

Licensing is based at the Tottenham Techno Park, Ashley Road N17.

Here is a link http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ashley+road+N17&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=18.98626,39.418945&ie=UTF8&z=16 .

Last few days of petition

One last post on this –

http://www.petitiononline.com/lapoff/

If you haven’t signed, the closing date is the 25/8 – do it!

Take or leave it, baby please believe it

..you ain’t never gonna be respectable

(apologies to anyone born after 1987)

Parliament is currently considering laws which would give local residents greater power to object to “gentlemen’s clubs” which have grown in number substantially since the Government relaxed the licensing laws. But the plans for a tougher regime hit a hurdle in the House of Lords, after Tory, Liberal and cross-bench peers raised objections to the classification of lap dancing venues as “sex encounter” clubs.

When the measures contained in the Policing and Crime Bill came before the Lords last month, peers tabled a series of amendments designed to see off the move on the grounds that lap dancers should not be labelled sex workers. Viscount Bridgeman (see the respectable, elected peer below), the Conservative home affairs spokesman, suggested that dancers would have a problem finding work in future if they were “stigmatised” in job interviews.

Link to article

Would you buy a used car from this man?

The danger of apathy

A controversial lap-dancing club will open its doors for the first time to the public tomorrow night following a scarcely attended consultation with residents.

Vogue, in The Parade, has been billed as Hertfordshire’s “most exclusive gentlemen’s club” and officially opens for business on Friday.

The club is yet to receive a permanent licence but held a consultation with concerned residents last week.

Despite receiving widespread opposition, only two residents turned up to a meeting organised by the premises’ owner Neil Campbell on Thursday evening.

Full story here

This is what happens when people do not turn up to meetings – please attend if you can on the 10th september

Online petition

We will be handing the online and physical petitions in to Haringey licensing department on the 26th August – please get anyone to sign it that hasn’t already by the 25th August – we currently have 868 signatures and would love to get to a 1000!

MP Lynne Featherstone will be presenting the petition to Haringey Licensing Officer, along with Lap Off campaigner and ward councillor, David Winskill.