From Lynne Featherstone’s blog

Crouch End lap-dancing application rejected

Thank goodness! Councillors turned down the lap-dancing club application in Crouch End. It’s been a very long and hard fought campaign – so congratulations to Alison Lillystone and all of the local people who worked so hard to present such a brilliant case. My LibDem colleague Cllr Dave Winskill has been working with the campaign group every step of the way – and I have done whatever whenever I could to help.

The report says the applicants may go to the courts and appeal the decision – but I hope they don’t. The new laws coming into effect soon change the status of the license that lap-dancing clubs need. Currently they only need the same license as a club or pub – but under the new laws they are classified as ‘sex-encounter establishments’ and will need a different license – one in which the location plays an even stronger determinant than currently.

So – as they have lost at this point, the chances of them getting a license under the new laws are even less. And they may be considering trying to get in before the law change – but in the Commons I pushed the Minister to state quite clearly that even if they were to succeed and get a license now – they would still have to apply for a new license as soon as the laws come in.

In the end – this is about location. That has always been the point and the reason for upset for local people. This was just the wrong place.

A bit more info on last night

I concede that last night’s entry was not the most comprehensive I have ever put on the blog – here is a report from the Haringey Independent.

Crouch End lap dancing bid rejected

11:19pm Friday 25th September 2009

A BID for lap dancing and strip shows at a Crouch End club has been rejected by Haringey Council.

Music Palace failed in its bid for permission to turn the Tottenham Lane club into a lap dancing venue, offering £10 strip shows to businessmen.

The licensing committee this evening turned down the bid, saying it was not satisfied club bosses had addressed concerns over having a strip club in a residential area.

However, councillors granted it extended opening hours until 2am, and left the door open for Music Palace by saying it would consider further conditions if they were proposed.

A large cheer went out from the packed public gallery when the decision was announced, and Crouch End residents are leaving satisfied they have fought off the prospect of a lap dancing club near their homes.

And a great post from our facebook site

Carol Horne (London) wrote at 12:02am RESULT! A dramatic night’s action. The applicant made her case and then the objectors were able to ask questions. Myself, Paul, Adrian and Simon asked questions and legal were really tough on us, not allowing is to make any statements and objecting to mant of our questions. To be honest at this point I thought we’d lost it. Then the committee asked the applicant questions. My husband Stewart spoke last to sum up all our case. The committee then went away and deliberated for a nail biting 90 minutes before returning. They denied the application to applause from the gallery, saying the evidence they had seen (especially around harm to children and crime) led them to deny the application. People called out “thank you chair” from the public gallery. Well done to LAP OFF for campaigning non stop since March and thank you to the 2,200 people who signed our petition and came to the hearings. It is heartening to know that ordinary people can make a difference.

WE WON

OH YES WE DID.

Two days to go….

On friday the final decision will be taken on whether Dentkas Hassan and Serdal Ziya are to be given permission to open a lap dancing bar within spitting distance of an infants school, a children’s charity and the YMCA hostel. We contend (and all the detailed studies ever taken point to this) that this is the most unsuitable location for a Lap Dancing Bar in Britain. Please attend if you can and show your support

Meeting details

7.30pm Friday 25th September

Wood Green Civic Centre, N22

More whinging by poor little Lap Dancing Club owners

New legislation getting a lot of press – all I can say is, if these clubs are such fine, upstanding places, you’d think they’d welcome complying with the law? Also, if they are not selling sex, somebody should tell the eejits punters before they go in – they should go home and read Loaded, with Linda Lovelace on in the background and save everyone a whole bunch of trouble.

They may be forced out of business – them’s the breaks. You play poker with the devil, and sometimes you lose. Anywhere, here’s the article

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4643033.New_law_is_threat_to_lap_dancing/

If you cannot be bothered to read the article, I have summed it up in a few cut and pastes for you

Chris Knight, vice-chairman of the Lap Dancing Association, which has lobbied against the stringent new rules, said: “We run the very real risk of clubs being forced out of business because the licence can be objected to every year on moral grounds.”

Mr Knight, who is operations director of the For Your Eyes Only club in High Street, Southampton, insisted: “We are not selling sex. We are a nightclub offering entertainment. Its titillation and fun.”

“Nobody in the industry wants it. It’s just a cash cow.” (Of course nobody wants it – they have been cashing in on the biggest loop hole in legislitative history for years, why would they possibly want it. What’s the next revalation – WWF wrestling is fixed?)

“My club is opposite the university in the centre of town. There is nothing tawdry or sleazy about it. To say the girls are exploited is an outdated statement. My girls are not exploited in the least.”

That told you!

Government wages war on lapdancing clubs – The Standard

Government wages war on lapdancing clubs

Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor
21.09.09

//

All existing lap dancing clubs will have to reapply for their licence to operate when new laws to curb their spread come into effect next year, ministers announced today.

The decision means that councils will have the power to order the closure of clubs that are already open if they believe that they are too near to a school or in a similarly inappropriate location.

Local authorities will also be able to shut down existing premises – as well as veto new clubs – if there are already too many in a particular area and to set a wider range of conditions on those that are allowed to open.

Full story here

Footnote : Don’t start putting those poles up yet, Mr Hassan…

Even this would be preferable

Parents’ key concerns… Police cells next to school

A FORMER warehouse opposite a primary school in Holloway is set to be turned into a police detention centre.
British Transport Police want to convert the empty building next door to Robert Blair Primary school into a 20-cell unit with an exercise area just yards from the school.
The 24-hour cells would house British Transport police suspects while they are being held in custody before either being transferred to prison or released.
Islington Council granted outline permission on condition that all prisoners released between 8am and 6pm are escorted to Caledonian Road Tube station.
Sharon Jobe, chairwoman of the nearby Market Road Estate Tenants Association, said she was “appalled” by the scheme. She added: “I’m going to talk to Islington Council about this. It should never have been agreed.”
Parent Sally Rayner said: “There’s been no consultation with parents as far as I know. I’m not at all happy about a centre with potential offenders next to a primary school.”
But not all parents are against the project. Susan Dunsmore said: “We’re already less than 500 yards down the road from Pentonville prison and no one complains about that. There are always lots of police around Brewery Road.”
Labour councillor Paul Convery, chairman of the West Area Planning Committee which unanimously approved the scheme, said: “These people will be driven in and driven out of the centre. I’ve spoken to the school’s head and he’s not worried about it.”
British Transport Police said the site, due to open next May, was chosen because of its proximity to several large rail stations.

4 reasons why a prison is better than a Lap Dancing Bar

1) Escaped prisoners are unlikely to hang around to harrass residents

2) They will probably not be sexually arroused

3) Prostitutes are unlikely to hang around outside a prison – they are more likely to be INSIDE the prison

4) Prisoners have a great sense of humour – have you ever seen Porridge?

Be there on friday to show your support

On friday the final decision will be taken on whether Dentkas Hassan and Serdal Ziya are to be given permission to open a lap dancing bar within spitting distance of an infants school, a children’s charity and the YMCA hostel. We contend (and all the detailed studies ever taken point to this) that this is the most unsuitable location for a Lap Dancing Bar in Britain. Please attend if you can and show your support

Meeting details

7.30pm Friday 25th September

Wood Green Civic Centre, N22

Lap Dancing clubs should be banned – mirror.co.uk

One unwelcome growth area in the past few years has been the rash of lapdancing clubs springing up, often in residential areas.

They are backward-looking and demeaning to women and should have no place in a modern society.

Now the Government is to clamp down on them. It is about time action was taken to curb these sleazy, exploitative clubs.

Telegraph – Lap Dancing clubs to cop it

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/6209571/Ministers-promise-crackdown-on-lap-dancing-clubs.html

Karma – it doesn’t have fists, but it does have legislation

(Apologies for anyone who hasn’t seen ‘My Name is Earl’)

Check near the bottom of the article for a mention of us..