Lap Dancing in Worcestershire

Ash Patel chose to withdraw plans for a table dancing club in Worcester at the former Images and Funk nightclub, in the Butts, in September, but decided to back down in the face of local 'outrage'.

However, Patel has now succeeded in getting the old DNA club's premises licence transferred to him two weeks ago, which will now allow him to now run the venue as a lap-dancing club. Patel said of the new Lowesmoor location:

This is a Bohemian part of Worcester, very cosmopolitan. It is perfect for this venue,

There will be on average 15 different dancers performing each night. The club will feature a main bar area and a stage but also six private dance booths and three VIP rooms. Before midnight, dancers will wear elegant evening gowns but, after this time, they will be allowed to wear various outfits. They will only be able to be fully naked in the private booths and the stage will feature topless rather than fully naked dancers.

The plan is to open from 9pm to 4am on weekdays and 9pm to 4.30am on Saturdays.

Update: Miserable petition signed by 25

18th December 2013. See review from  worcesternews.co.uk

A petition against a lap dancing club in Worcester has been set up by a nimby who claims to have seen first-hand the devastating impact he says the trade can have on vulnerable young women. The e-petition against the Black Cherry gentleman's club, in Lowesmoor, has been started by David Mair who lives around the corner from the venue. Mair believes the club, which is expected to open in the new year, will lower the tone of the area and create no go areas for women.

Mair has predictably won the backing of the gender extremist organisation, Object.

But owner Patel said the club would be discreet with no salacious advertising outside the venue to avoid creating offence said:

To suggest that the very presence of the club is a threat to local women or could cause endangerment to children is sensationalism to support the petition.

Nuisance would be prevented by installing acoustically secure doors and he says there will be no exploitation of women.

Update: Stop whingeing prudes!

23rd December 2013. See  article from  worcesternews.co.uk

A struggling entrepreneur who fears her business could go under says prudes should stop moaning about plans for a new lap dancing club nearby, claiming it could boost trade.

Sarah Colquitt, manager and self-confessed dogsbody at the Puss n Pooch grooming salon and boutique in Lowesmoor, Worcester, is fed up with people moaning about the Black Cherry club, when it could help struggling traders keep their heads above water in the recession.

The club, which could feature 15 naked or topless dancers performing each night, is scheduled to open at the site of the former DNA club in the new year.

Dancers could be forced by morality police to cover-up and wear G-strings if they are women and posing pouches if they are men at a proposed table dancing club in Worcester.

Police do not object in principle to granting a licence to the Black Cherry in The Butts, Worcester, at what used to be Images and then Funk nightclub, but want to attach morality conditions.

Worcester City Council didn't adopt 2009 legislation so the application must be considered under standard licensing rules under 2003 legislation.

A letter from Inspector Jane Francis, of West Mercia Police, to licensing officer Carl Phillips reveals that Police are taking it on themselves to make up the rules about nudity. Francis says full nudity should be permitted only within designated areas. She said:

In all other areas within the premises the performers and employees must at all times wear at least a G-string (female) and/or pouch (male) covering the genitalia.

During private dances there must be no deliberate contact by the performer with the patron except where they lead them by the hand to a private room, a handshake greeting at the beginning or ending of the performance, a customary peck on the cheek and the placing of cash or dance vouchers into the hand or garter of the performer.

The application is set to be discussed by the council on September 26.