Well next week 6 clubs are up for renewal in Leeds. All objections and support should be in by now so we will see if the council is willing to risk court cases by trying to close two of the clubs. The clubs have previously said they will fight and hope that they all pull together on this on next year the council may force through a recommendation that only 2 clubs are needed. And then the year after 1. If the clubs don't fight now while there are a few of them and they can work together the risk is there will be no one left to fight the religious left in the council. Having seen when the cases are the last two are the ones that worry me as neither have the committee reconvening in the afternoon so they would be the ones I would suspect if the council were to try and close any clubs they would be the targets. Almost oh look we have approved 4 and we can only have 4 so sorry you can't have your license renewed. Hoping I am wrong for the dancers, clubs and customers and it is just my suspicious mind running wild. It should be noted that the council officer did say that there was no control over the councillors and they could refuse all or grant all of them. Considering the risks to the council coffers it would take a brave person or an idiot to risk the court cases.
Interesting the Nightingales got its license in Birmingham, no challenges or complaints and it didn't need to go before a committee by the looks of it as the SEV licensing blog could find no record of the approval in council minutes. Wow how can any club be so lucky? Actually is is a male club in the "gay village area" of Brum. No issues and good luck to them but this makes it interesting next time a club applies for a new license or a renewal and runs foul of the council. Setting a precedent has risks and benefits. Besides we can but hope it is the fact that Birmingham is an enlightened city and they don't have the moral blinkers that cities like Leeds wear.
Wiggle in Bournemouth survived a license renewal by the skin of it' teeth. While many readers would have appreciated the old style lap dancing that seemed to occur there we now have guidelines that mean dancers can't interact with customers. I do think that now that Bournemouth council is going to send in surprise shoppers Wiggle will need to ensure they comply to the letter of the license or they will not get away with another license renewal. This blogger has personal opinions but we are guided by a nanny state and are finding strong religious views permeating through councils bringing moral judgements into an area that an inividual's morals should not apply. We have laws and if a club isn't breaking them then I personally would prefer councils concentrate on making the clubs better experience for dancers and customers. The knock on effect would be more returning customers.
Finally want to just quickly pick up on the whole issue of UK Sport first saying that funded athletes that went to strip bars or lap dances would lose their funding. And then they quickly said they had made a mistake and they were not going to remove funding if athletes went to these places. Found it funny because the loss of a bronze medal at Stringfellows seems to be the reason this all started. The funny thing is once a few people came out against it and in particular the comments about this applying to hen parties the whole fiasco was dropped. Lets be honest these people won't be out every night they train to hard for that but if the thought police are going to do things then the implications are bad for everyone. No doubt there is a small but noisy group of people wanting to moaning about this but lets be honest they would find something to moan about at the best of times.
TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)
Is it possible for each of the dancers and staff in any of the closed clubs in Leeds to bring a class action against the council for loss of earnings?
ReplyDeleteFollowing this from the very beginning, one or two people have perverted any pretence at democracy in Leeds and enforced their narrow-minded, bigoted view on the whole city. It's shocking and disgusting in equal measure.
Interesting concept and I am not sure. Will have to ask someone who would understand the legal aspect if this was the case but guessing that the SEV laws come from central government in terms of the powers to close a business so would doubt there is a right here in the UK. However I will ask a person or two about this to at least have some idea. I would have thought though that venues would have been getting their dancers to file legal suits if they could as it would intimidate councils with thta sort of threat.
DeleteThis is a marvellous idea and one that I have been giving much thought to over the past few months. If indeed there was to be such an action, it's scope should surely include the author of 'Lilith' and of course Jeremy Coutinho and Sasha Rackoff. Although Jezza and Sash no longer have any direct connection with Object, it was they that started the whole mess off and must be held accountable by any club owner and dancer that lost their business/job ad a result of the legislation that they initiated.
ReplyDeleteThe legal sticking point would be that dancers are self employed and have the option of working at other clubs. That being said the Stringfellow ruling could turn out to be a blessing. Would need a specialist in employment law though as the whole thing is bit beyond my discussions so far. And I will approach other people to see if anyone can help clarify it.
DeleteTonyN