Lap Dancing in Warwickshire

A High Court challenge to a decision that has allowed lap dancing at a Leamington nightclub has been dropped.

The Hindu Religious Association of Leamington and Warwick was due to be heard at a hearing at High Court in its challenge of Warwick District Council's granting of a sexual entertainment licence to Shades in High Street.

The council has agreed to contribute towards the cost of the claim.

It seems that the decision was related to funding and the high risk that they would lose their case and their money. Yash Pal Tara of the association said:

Companies such as Shades can afford specialist legal advice and representation which is beyond the reach of local people. We feel vindicated that we were granted permission for a judicial review, but on balance, there are better ways to oppose Shades and significant taxpayers' money would be spent on this case. We did not want that.

Cllr Michael Coker, responsible for policy on community protection, said:

It is appropriate that the parties should share the costs to prevent considerable amounts of public time and money being spent on a hearing in the High Court.

Campaigners against strip clubs have been successful in their request for a judicial review into the granting of a sexual entertainment licence for Shades in Old Town, Leamington.

Judge Charles Purle QC ruled in favour of a group made up of members of the Leamington and Warwick Green Party, the Hindu Temple committee and residents on all four points they had challenged on the way Warwick District Council's licencing committee and officers had handled the granting of the table dancing club's licence in August.

Jonathan Chilvers, of the Green Party, claimed:

The whole process was flawed. Why was the licence granted after being refused twice? Why were flats only yards away not seen as being 'local'? The decision was wrong in the way it was made and wrong for our town.

A judicial review of the hearing and process in which the decision was made will now go before the court no earlier than June. If it is successful the council will have to re-instigate the process to consider the licence.

A table dancing club in Leamington has been smashed up in a mystery attack.

Amara VIP gentleman's club in Court Street was targeted over the Easter weekend. The damage is estimated to run into tens of thousands of pounds.

Police are now investigating the attack, which saw sound systems ripped from their fixtures on the wall, seating destroyed and mirrors smashed.

The venue was granted a licence to become a sexual entertainment venue a year ago with plenty of opposition. And the ruling, allowing the club's owners to host table dancing and pole dancing events up to seven nights per week, angered many opponents.

But in a further twist the club owners insisted that they had just ceased operating from the premises earlier this week and had closed for the final time in the early hours of Saturday morning. An application had been lodged with Warwick District Council to turn the venue into a nightclub, which was rejected. An appeal was set to be heard on April 24 but it is not known if this will now go ahead.

In a somewhat surprising change of heart, the third licensing attempt has proven lucky for a Leamington nightclub's bid to provide regular lap dancing.

Warwick District Council's regulatory committee voted by five to four in favour of granting Shades Gentleman's Club in High Street, Old Town, a sex establishment licence which will allow lap dancing and pole dancing at the premises from 11pm to 3am from Tuesday to Thursday and until 4am on Fridays and Saturdays.

The committee had heard representations from several objectors who had raised the usual bollox 'concerns' about the safety of residents including female students, its proximity to the Hindu Temple in High Street and the supposed detrimental effect the club could have on the regeneration of the area.

Ian Besant, the solicitor representing applicants and owners Robert and Lisa Ransford, argued that the business had been run as a strip club for four years before new legislation came in and there had been no complaints or issues with the club. He pointed out that neither Warwickshire Police or Environmental Health had raised any objections to the application.

Putting forward the proposal to grant the application, Councillor George Illingworth said there was no solid evidence the club would affect the area in the way objectors had suggested.

A condition of the licence will be for club logo to remove the female silhouette that forms the 'A' in SHADES.

Interestingly councillors at the meeting asked for their votes to be individually recorded. This gives a clue that perhaps councillors have realised that recent European legislation seems to have made it illegal to refuse licenses on some of the trivial moral justifications that have councillors have used in the past. Perhaps councillors, aware of these laws, wanted to ensure that their vote for the licence was recorded, to ensure that they are not individually held to account, should a failed licensee decide to sue the council.

See more about the legalities of lap dancing licensing .

A Leamington old town nightclub twice refused a pole dancing licence has made a third attempt to reopen for adult entertainment.

Shades in High Street had its second application to operate as a sex entertainment venue turned down by Warwick District Council in March on the bollox grounds of its proximity to houses and Leamington's Hindu temple.

Ward councillor Alan Wilkinson (Lab, Leamington Brunswick) said he was surprised , adding: The reasons for it being rejected haven't changed, it is in a residential area. I hope the committee will support its previous decision.

Cllr Wilkinson is among Labour and Green Party nutters campaigning to cap the number of sexual entertainment venues in Warwick district, alongside the Rev Christopher Wilson, priest-in-charge at All Saints' church, Leamington.

Nutters in Leamington Old Town have been left 'stunned' by the council's decision to grant the Amara club a sexual entertainment licence seven nights a week.

50 letters of objection had been lodged by neighbouring residents. The licence allows adult entertainment such as lap-dancing between 11pm and 3am Sunday and Thursday and from 11pm until 4am Friday and Saturday.

The council said it had noted the premises was well run, entertainers would be subject to strict working conditions and customers would be required to obey a strict set of rules. The council also accepted the applicant's submission that there would be little or no effect on businesses, schools and places of worship in the area due to their opening hours not coinciding with the proposed hours for Amara.

The council committee, summing up its decision, wrote:

No objection was received by any of the relevant statutory bodies, including Warwickshire Police or children's services. Furthermore, while we note the proximity of the premises to the residential properties in Tower Street, the committee did not consider Tower Street would constitute a residential area.

Leamington mayor, coun Alan Wilkinson, told the Observer he was very very angry at the decision.

Shades nightclub in Leamington Old Town applied again to get permission for a sex establishment licence .

Last June the former lap-dancing venue was refused permission for the licence by Warwick District Council - citing bollox about the possible negative effect it could have on the area.

Under the Policing and Crime Act 2009, no business is allowed to re-apply for a licence within a year but a fortnight ago bosses of Shades did file a new application. A council licensing spokesman explained: They believe there to be a possible loophole in so far as an individual can re-apply, rather than the business, and the council will have to decide if that is permitted.

Leamington mayor Alan Wilkinson, also a town councillor, told The Observer: I am disappointed another application has gone in. It would really bring the down the tone of an area we are trying to clear up.

But the venue has now been refused license for the second time. The council's regulatory committee cited the same bollox reasons, that it was somehow due to the negative effect the authority felt it would have on the area.

A council licensing spokesman spewed to the Observer: It has nothing to do with the nature of the sexual entertainment industry, or to do with how this club has been run, it is due to its location, which is felt that such activities are inappropriate for. There is no right of appeal against this refusal.

Shades Gentleman's Club in Leamington's High Street had its licence renewal rejected down by Warwick District Council after opposition from nutters claiming it degraded women as sex objects .

It follows a change in licensing laws which meant lap dancing clubs had to reapply for a sex entertainment licence to operate.

Campaigner Ian Davison, of South Leamington Green Party, said: I'm delighted.

Update: Moral censorship

30th June 2011.  From coventrytelegraph.net

Shades Gentlemen's Club, in Leamington High Street, employs nearly 30 people and there have been no complaints from the police or direct neighbours about its activities since it opened three years ago.

But a licence committee refused the application supposedly because of the club's impact on the character of the surrounding area, in particular its close proximity to residential flats, places of worship and charities.

The committee also felt the presence of a sex entertainment venue in Old Town destroyed attempts to regenerate the area and decided it was not in the public interest.

Although objections on religious or moral grounds cannot be taken into account, licensing services manager David Davies told the Times: You can't say 'I object to striptease dancers because I don't agree with them', but licences can be refused because of the venue's locality and proximity to schools, churches, homes and so on.

Bosses of Shades have 21 days to appeal the decision to the magistrates court, should they wish.