Before reading this article please watch the following news article from BBC Look North in December covering the story of Leeds City Council refusing Sexual Entertainment Venue (SEV) licences to three of Leeds biggest lap dancing clubs, Wildcats, Deep Blue and Red Leopard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z7L5Cpv4B4
Councillor Alison Lowe, one of the feminist councillors launching her moral crusade against the legal, law-abiding lap dancing clubs, gives some very weak reasoning behind the councils objective to close down the three clubs in question, personifying the aim of the D.A.N.C.E campaign – Don’t Accept Nonsense Councillor Explanations.
Here is my response to the reasoning she gives:
“Its about Leeds being a child friendly City”
Leeds IS a child friendly City whether there are lap dancing clubs present or not. Wildcats and Deep Blue have removed ALL signage from the front of their venues and have altered their opening hours to open at 11pm and 10pm respectively. This is way beyond a reasonable time to expect all children to have vacated the City Centre.
With no signage outside the venues how can any child be expected to appreciate what happens behind the closed doors at night? A group of school children leaving Leeds Town Hall or Leeds Art Gallery will have no idea what happens in the building opposite them. There is NO signage, NO advertising, NO naked women, NO clue as to what the building is. Currently there are not even opening hours displayed at Wildcats making the club almost invisible, much to the detriment of the business in order to satisfy the councils objectives.
Promotional activity has been reduced and does not take place until after 9pm with COUNCIL APPROVED flyers and flyering permits APPROVED and GRANTED by Leeds City Council. Even discarded flyers would cause no offense to children or families.
Leeds City Council do however seem to have no problem with children and families walking past shop fronts including Ann Summers, Simply Pleasure and Nice n Naughty who regularly display pictures of naked men and women, sex toys and erotic messages, in the day time for all to see.
“Its about generating new businesses that hopefully will replace the jobs that are going to be lost”
Has Alison Lowe walked down the Headrow recently? Currently five of the fourteen ground floor Headrow units spanning the distance opposite Leeds Town Hall and the Henry Moore Institute are unoccupied.
Anybody leaving Leeds Town Hall is faced with a row of For Sale and To Let signs and closing two of the largest units will only make this worse.
The unit currently occupied by Wildcats was previously tenanted by Babycream, a nightclub with a huge reputation and high hopes of being successful in Leeds…. It failed. More recently, Prohibition, one of the best and most established cocktail bars in Leeds, with a prominent position on the popular Greek Street, closed its doors, falling foul of the financial constraints and challenges facing the licensed trade industry today.
Four units in Leeds, previously granted SEV’s: Black Diamond, Blue Coyote, Directors and Planet Earth ALL remain vacant.
So, Alison Lowe believes new business will be generated to create jobs to replace those lost? I beg to differ. Units could stay unoccupied for years casting an ambience of emptiness and economic failure for those delegates exiting Leeds Town Hall facing the Headrow. I think I’d prefer two functioning, legal, law-abiding, successful businesses.
“(Its about) lots of women that want to be safe”
This one infuriates me as it is based on very little reliable evidence when in fact all evidence that does exist is to the contrary. I will go into further detail in a later blog dedicated to the subject but here is a summary.
According to University of Leeds research carried out by Teela Sanders, women working in clubs, “did not report violence and felt safe due to security” while interviews with regulators including licensing and police found, “compared to other bar and club venues in the night time economy SEV venues were the source of very few problems or complaints in terms of public order, safety and nuisance”.
NO objections were made against SEV licences being granted by West Yorkshire Police and one of the main objections, coming from Support After Rape and Sexual Violence Leeds (SAR&SVL) is based in a 2003 study by Eaves Housing for Women in Camden which has since been proven to be completely flawed and unreliable.
In fact on granting the 2012 license, the licensing committee responded to such objections by stating, “these were of a general nature and not supported by any observations by the police or any evidence relating to Leeds”. Nothing has changed.
Wildcats and Deep Blue have been the subject of very few problems over the past ten years and I am fairly sure that 100% of women would feel much safer walking past one of those clubs than through the areas occupied by the likes of Oceana and Tiger Tiger, where a heavy police presence is constantly required.
I also question whether reducing the number of SEV’s to four and granting them to small back street clubs on residential streets, such as the two on York Place, instead of larger clubs on well lit busy streets would be sensible if these people are truly concerned that lap dancing clubs lead to an increase in sexual violence?
“3.5billion people will be viewing the Tour de France on TV, covering 188 countries and we don’t want Leeds to be shown in anything but the very, very best light”
This is by far the most ridiculous claim I have ever heard.
For a start, the population of planet Earth is 7.1billion. The 2014 superbowl attracted a record worldwide audience of 111.5million. The 2012 Olympics Opening ceremony was watched by 900million. Is Alison Lowe really deluded enough to think that 50% of the Worlds population are going to watch the start of a race scorned by a history of drug cheats?
I don’t doubt there will be huge interest locally, but as a passionate sports fan myself I have never watched the start of any Tour de France and would be surprised if any person I know has, never mind half of them!!!
With all signage removed from the outside of the club and the club not opening its doors until 11pm how would anybody be any the wiser? I cannot imagine somebody sitting around a TV in Kenya or Djibouti saying “oh, there’s Bradley Wiggins in his nice yellow jersey, but hold on, what’s that, an empty grey building behind him, could that possibly… no…. never, a lap dancing club (insert imaginary gasp)!!”
This won’t happen because a), – there is no signage, b), – everybody will be watching the cyclists and c), – I very much imagine the best camera angle will be away from the clubs and facing the more picturesque Leeds Town Hall. I can think of 100 more reasons this is an invalid argument and could argue them until I’m as red in the face as the race leader using all his energy to push the peloton up the French Alps.
If all ‘3.5billion people’ that watch ‘Le Grand Depart’ were interviewed after the race, not one will have noticed a lap dancing club, they may however notice four or five prominent ‘To Let signs’.
“I
think the City is one step closer to being the best City we can possibly be”.So what constitutes a ‘best city’? London is the second most visited City in the world behind Bangkok and has 53 SEVs. Paris, the third most visited City in the world has 50. Rome, home of the Catholic church has 13 and Birmingham, the UK’s second City saw visitor economy rise to £4.9b helping to create 2126 jobs, with nine SEV’s.
Leeds attracts 23 million visitors per year with spending moving the City into the top five UK destinations outside of London. This has been achieved with seven SEV’s. Deals have been signed for Leeds to host Sports Personality of the Year 2013 and ‘Le Grand Depart’ while these clubs existed opposite Leeds Town Hall so these clubs are in no way detrimental to the draw that Leeds possesses for tourists and attracting major events to the City. In fact some could argue these clubs have the opposite effect and are possibly an attraction for these people and the visitors they attract.
All in all, the five explanations and arguments put forward by Cllr Alison Lowe and quite simply flawed, ambitious and unrealistic. Her ideologies to promote her moral crusade are completely inaccurate backed up my unrealistic claims typical of modern politicians.
The amount of support the lap dancing clubs have received has been tremendous and for a media outlet such as the BBC to cover the plight of the clubs in such a positive manner speaks volumes.
The solicitor on the BBC News programme may deny it but the council are expected to spend up to £200,000 in legal bills alone fighting to have the clubs closed down.
I encourage the council to spend taxpayers money more wisely and wise up to the realities of the jobs and livelihoods they are seeking to displace.
Please leave your feedback and show the council they are wrong in refusing these clubs a new license at a cost of 200 jobs. I also encourage you to sign the petition below:
www.gopetition/petitions/dance.html
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