A thank you to a regular reader and commentator of the blog John for pointing out the result in Coventry (press article here). What I find so disappointing is that 53% were against the clubs but considering that the council recognised that the majority of people objecting were doing so on moral grounds it leaves the whole consultation open to challenge in my humble opinion.
Regular readers of the blog will know that objections on moral grounds are discounted by guidelines around the act that allows the nil policy. So the council is acting on just over half the people who took part, but a lot of them were mentioning moral grounds which I think leaves the whole thing standing on very shaky ground.
That said the owner of Club Heat must be rubbing his hands with glee knowing there will be no competition locally. So where do people who want to open a club in Coventry go? Well I am sure the councillor with the legal firm would be a good place to start.
So this is another Nil Policy that has no teeth. Every council knows that trying to close clubs will end up in court and that the laws are behind existing clubs! So at best for them they have stopped any more clubs, at least till someone is forced into going for a judicial review, at which point the wind may change (did it, got a passing reference to the scorpions). On a serious note I really do wonder why these consultations take place when councils must be realising to try and close an existing club that has no history of major issues is just asking for court action.
TonyN
Thanks Tony, loving your posts so far.
ReplyDeleteyeah the 53% being against SEV's was a bit surprising, but looking into it a bit more I expect a number of this group below were out in force completing the consultation.
http://coventrywomensvoices.wordpress.com/2012/10/02/coventry-city-council-sex-entertainment-venues-consultation/
Also 500 responses is not a great sample size considering the population of Coventry which is around 325,000. So surely the logical conclusion would have been to assume that the people of Coventry weren't bothered and kept the status quo?
Apathy is our biggest enemy. Most people seem to be live and let live. However if they are not prepared to do something then we stand a chance to lose things. I did notice that there wasn't much coming out of Heat over this which surprised me, Usually the clubs are over it like a rash.
ReplyDeleteNoticed that CWV rolled out the issue in Bristol even though they know that the area has many night clubs and the council called the area a crime impact zone. At no point was there any causal linkage between the clubs and the incidence in sexual crimes. In fact I told them over a year ago about the figures but they stopped debating and ignored my comments.
Glad the posts are not too boring. As long as there is a battle some one will pump out the stories.
TonyN
Re a judicial review of a nil limit.
ReplyDeleteDid you spot the news from Slough
http://www.sloughobserver.co.uk/news/roundup/articles/2013/03/24/87840-joy-as-lap-dancing-bid-for-pandoras-rejected-by-judge/
Thanks for that Melon, the location seems a bit strange even to me, a Hamlet is not the place I would choose for club. The really challenge for a nil policy will come when someone tries to close an existing venue. The one in Leicester has already won in court and Thirst are trading while awaiting their day in court. Remember the Human rights act say you are entitled to enjoy your possessions and a club license is viewed like that.
Deletewith regards to apathy i totally agree Tony. I was guilty of it myself when my local club Shades didn't get it's SEV license initially. The first i knew of it was a few weeks later when a friend mentioned it. I'd assumed it wouldn't have any problems and didn't even realise people could write in with letters of support. Annoyingly councils don't seem to promote this. It was only when Shades applied the 2nd and 3rd time that i got involved and started writing.
ReplyDeleteAs you mention with Heat, some clubs don't always seem to be on the ball. With Shades for example, it has over 2000 facebook friends, mostly local people and customers, yet they didn't mention anything regarding writing in to support the club. However they did eventually put up the council link (after a certain person suggested it to them, hehe!) and managed to garner a lot of support in the end. It was something like 230 in favour to 70 objections, interestingly including a petition of support from the Red Bull F1 team!
I really do believe these things make a big difference to tip the balance in favour of the clubs. At the end of the day Cllrs on the panel are after peoples votes and unless they have a moral agenda or there are some party politics at play, will generally go for the populist choice.
I know that the clubs can be off the ball. Seeing that in TH, wondering if mailing lists may be useful to the clubs to then drift down info to the dancers and customers. I don't really want to take on a job that should be done by the LDA but it's a case of we need to be talking and passing information. As much as this is a blog it is also becoming an information resource with people feeding it.
DeleteOne of the reasons I am using the tonyprince@acdcfan.com e-mail addy is I access 3 or 4 times a day and it is not linked to my real persona. I just want as much info out as fast as possible. The whole reasoning behind twitter is to get info out fast and in fast. But I am reliant on others to want to use it.
It's especially important that word of any consultation reaches the dancers, as the result may have long-term implications for the their jobs, and they're eligible to submit their views to any which specify that only the opinions of those who live, work or study in a given area will be taken into consideration. The relevant unions - the GMB and Equity - should also be kept in the loop, as they have more bargaining power than individual dancers or venue owners.
DeleteI would hope some dancers are reading the blog and checking out the consultations not only for their own jobs but also to see if they can support other dancers around the UK.
Delete