Welcome to September (a round up)

Well been nice and quiet for a bit and to be very honest I was hoping my two last pieces would have got a response from the author or the councillor who wrote the introduction. Well now I guess we can see the two pieces must be reasonably factually correct or given the history we could have expected legal action. The fact the only challenge was on a tweet as I didn't know one of the more confusing issues with Twitter. And yes I changed the introduction as I will stand by what I write and if someone has facts that prove me wrong I will acknowledge it rather than pretend it never happened.

Okay we are now off to Woolwich where the Royal Standard Strip Pub has had dancing stopped over issues with renewing the license. Seems 3 councillors have been sitting round like schoolboys doing home work and they have all sent in the same(ish) letter with the whole what about the schools issue. It is a pub, last time I checked kids are not allowed in so how would this affect them? Is there plasma screens on the outside with the dancers being live streamed? no! Is there peep holes designed so kids can peek in? No! Does it advertise sweets or toys? No! So why do people think children would be bothered, upset or even know what is going on. Seems the pub has agreed to security to stop the 1,000s' of children beating the doors down. We look forward to seeing what is going to happen there but the renewal application is being done on the 5th so we look forward to seeing the results there.

Now up to Leeds which Chasmal has been keen on watching and Black Diamond (or Tantric Blue) never got planning permission for the expansion. This has been sought and approved, so now we have the issue of the council said I could expand so how does the license committee close the venue unless there are major infractions on the license. I always thought this would be one of the targets to go but now you have to think the licensing committee will have to target other venues. Certainly seems joined up Government has maintained the standards I knew when I was in Local Government.

And it seems there will be another interesting licensing committee meeting on the 5th as Shades is up for renewal. After the dropping of the judicial review it will be interesting to see what the opposition come up with now. We hope that all the patrons are sending in letters of support and that the council realise if the judicial review was dropped that would have been on legal advice. So long as Shades trades within its license I have a suspicion the council would have a hard time in court about closing the place. Wishing the Shades crowd all the best!
Edit Letters of objection or support should be in by 5th September. So post now!


Well I couldn't write this without joining in the MileyGate Debate. Notice that a lot of the feminist commentators had to avoid slut shaming tactics as they decry that as an attack on women so suddenly we get cultural appropriation... which is when white people act black as far as the commentators describe. Now not an expert on this but Elvis was attacked for cultural appropriation in the 50s (plus the hips) so 60 years later we seem to have got no further. Why didn't someone say this back when Vanilla Ice came onto the scene. Seriously I am no fan of her music and really don't care about what she did with Thicke but looking round for excuses to have a go at the girl without slut shaming is amusing (if it wasn't such old hat). So another disney girl sheds her wholesome image, Britney and Christina both of whom have moved on. These women are old enough to make up their own minds and just because it doesn't fit with the view some people have they are still exercising free choice so get a grip people.

TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)

Leeds Council - Shall We Have A Bet?

Hi, its Chasmal here and you may not be aware that yesterday Leeds Council met and decided to rubber stamp Rebecca Charlwoods plan to cap the number of clubs in Leeds. They decided to implement this policy with the full knowledge that it will cost 200 people their livelihoods, but quite frankly that is not an issue that Leeds Council could really care less about.

Firm details are hard to come by, but an article here claims that.....

'The council’s licensing committee will review each existing licence when they are due for renewal later this year, where the number of strip clubs will be whittled down from 7 to 5'. 

What really makes me laugh was this quote from Rebecca Charlwood. You can see the full article here...

"We have one side which is the women's groups who are opposed to any kind of sexual entertainment at all and the other side which is the proprietors and the people that use the clubs.

"We wanted to find a middle ground, a moderate policy, that reflected the main bulk of the people of Leeds and their views."
Oh come on Rebecca, don't try and paint yourself as a moderate. You are one of the people who are opposed to any kind of sexual entertainment at all. Lets go back in time to Rachel Reeves blog where we learn that....

'....Cllr Rebecca Charlwood, Moortown, is spearheading the campaign....' to '....get these inappropriate venues out of prominent city centre locations.....'

Furthermore in the BBC article we also learn that..

 '.......85% of the 1,847 people who responded to a public consultation supported the cap......'

Hang on a minute. How does this new policy reflect 'the main bulk of people of Leeds and their views when only .2% of the population expressed a view supporting the cap.

StrippingTheIllusion is going to make a prediction about the two clubs that will get axed in the coming licensing review. Now if I am correct, I have a 1 in 42 chance of correctly predicting the names of the 2 clubs that will be have their licenses removed, but I think I will be proven correct when Leeds Council Licensing Committee try and line up Wildcats and Red Leopard for the chop.

Do not fool yourself that anything remotely close to democracy is happening here, the decision has already been made....

In the coming weeks, we will revisit this matter and highlight issues that we believe readers will find disturbing and that point to a streak of corrupt arrogance within Leeds Council that you will find breathtaking...

Leeds Insanity

Hi Its Chasmal here following up on Tonys piece on Leeds Council and Rebecca Charlwoods campaign to slash the number of clubs in the City and deny about 300 people a way of making a living.

The naivety that is being displayed by the Council is quite frankly beyond belief. It is to me quite obvious that the current Charlwood campaign is designed to remove Red Leopard and Wildcats from their current location in Leeds city centre. The Council aim to achieve this by either forcing them to change locations or by revoking their operating licenses, despite their being not a single infringement of their conditions of trading.

Lets look at this....

If the Council choose to revoke the SEV licenses, they will be taken to court and this will include a judicial review, which will be expensive because the Council would probably lose.

If a forced move of premises is the method of attack, the Council may well find themselves liabke for the costs associated with the move. Lets have a look at this in more detail and see what the cost centres would be...

Costs associated with settlement of outstanding lease period...

Legal fees for the above,

Cost of locating suitable premises,

Cost of ensuring new premises meet all safety and fire regulations,

Fit out and decoration of new premises,

Costs associated with move to new premises.

A ball park estimate of the above figures places the liability at around £2 million, but don't forget there are two, possibly three venues that may be involved, so lets total it out at around £5 million.

So in other words, Rebecca Charlwood is aiming to commit the Council to a potential liability of £5 million, with the full knowledge that the Council is suffering severe budget cuts, needing save £55 million in the coming year. In an article you can read here, the full extent of the cut backs being contemplated by the Council are as follows....

Eight residential homes and four adult day centres could close, but hey that's alright because lets face it, the security and safety of the elderly is nowhere near as important as getting those awful clubs away from the Town Hall.

A grant for school uniforms could be scrapped and nursery fees may rise, but still remember that education standards are meaningless when considered against the evil of lapdancing clubs.

More than 300 public service jobs will also be shed, but maybe that's not so bad because the Council can provide some kind of job training scheme similar to the one that Rachel Reeves suggested for unemployed lap dancers and club staff. Oh sorry they can't because they have no money.

Apparently Council leader, Keith Wakefield, said “painful decisions” had to be made in order to “protect front line services”, but he didn't mention anything about 'painful decisions' being made in order to protect the intellectual vanity of Rebecca Charlwood.

“What we have actually found by slight (sic) of hand, smoke and mirrors, is that our grant cut has meant we have had to find £55m. That makes it one of the worst settlements in the country – except for Bristol, the worst settlement out of the core cities. It’s still very much the northern cities taking the hit.”

Well I think I can safely say that club owners in Leeds have that the Council are dab hands at sleight of hand and smoke and mirrors themselves as they contemplate reserving about £5 million to close some clubs.

But at least the Council can get the cash they need by charging the public more for services. Apparently some of their ideas include.....

* Increasing Council house rents, garage rents and service charges by 5.9 per cent;

* Increasing children’s nursery fees by £2 per day;

* Increasing sport charges by approximately 4 per cent;

* Increasing bereavement charges by 7.5 per cent, although hardship grants will be available.

* Increasing parking charges for motorists up until 8pm

* Increasing the cost of residential car parking permits.

* Starting to charge for previously free adult social care services and free annual city events, such as the Party in the Park.

* Scrapping some free home-to-school/college travel from September, which would save £2.8m, or about half what the Council will need to relieve 300 people of their income.

So if you have an elderly relative whose care home has just closed, or you have a child without a school uniform or used to work for the Council and now find yourself jobless, please remember that Rebecca Charlwood not did nothing to help, but she in fact made things worse.

Is it just me or have Leeds Council taken leave of their senses?

Is it just me or are Leeds Council about to demonstrate that they are not fit for purpose?