Today see’s the beginning of a three day
judicial review into Leeds City Council decision to refuse licences to two of
Leeds biggest lap dancing clubs – and I am praying that justice is done and the
clubs are granted the licences they deserve.
In December, the licensing committee decided that Leeds should only house four Sexual Entertainment Venues and refused the licence applications of Deep Blue, Wildcats and Red Leopard due to their proximity to buildings with ‘sensitive’ uses.
Deep Blue and Wildcats have launched expensive appeals against this decision and rightly so, as they aim to keep hundreds of employees in work and protect the law abiding businesses they have operated for years.
Red Leopard, who are still currently trading as a ‘hostess’ bar did not launch an appeal and hopefully it will not be long before their venue is closed down as it continues to tarnish the reputations of the clubs and industry as a whole that has stuck by the council’s rigid rules.
I believe the decision to refuse licenses was not fair for a number of reasons:
Deep Blue and Wildcats have removed
all signage making them almost invisible to anybody passing the premises during
the day. This has been done with the councils aim to become as child friendly
as possible in mind. Nobody leaving the Town Hall, Art Gallery or Henry Moore Institute
would be any the wiser of the business use of the Wildcats premises. Neither would any of the millions (not
3.5billion as ridiculously quoted by Alison Lowe!!) of people expected to watch
the Tour de France as it departs from the Headrow on July 5th.
Deep Blue does not open until 10pm and
Wildcats until 11pm, a reasonable time to expect any children and families to
have vacated the city centre vicinity.- Granting the licences will save around 200 jobs, not just those of the dancers but also those of the cleaners, doormen, bar staff, promotions staff, managers. There is also the knock on effect to nearby bars, printers, local suppliers etc. that will also be directly affected.
- Granting the licences would reportedly have saved the cities taxpayer up to £200,000 in legal bills alone, the cost of Leeds City Council fighting the licence renewals.
- Deep Blue has been operating as a gentleman’s club for over ten years while Wildcats has been there for eight years. It seems harsh to suddenly decide these clubs are not wanted in locations they have occupied for years.
- Both businesses are lawful and West Yorkshire Police made no objections or local residents of the club who would much prefer a reasonably quiet and trouble free lap dancing club rather than a loud, anti-social late night bar or club.
- Leeds is being restricted to four Sexual Entertainment Venues while London, the second
most visited City in the world has 53, Paris has 50, Rome, home of the Catholic Church has 13 and Birmingham, who’s tourist economy has helped create an extra 2126 has nine.
- With the closure of Wildcats and Red Leopard there will be six vacant ground floor units on the Headrow in the small area between Leeds Town Hall and the Henry Moore Institute. Delegates leaving Leeds Town Hall or visitors leaving the art gallery will get a feeling of an unsuccessful deserted City as they face a row of For Sale and To Let signs.
- The frontages of both clubs are very
inoffensive. There is no advertising, no pictures of naked girls, no suggestive
wording r slogans, there is not even the name of either club. A survey found
then when adults were shown a picture of Wildcats 91% were not offended by the
image and 100% had not experienced a problem with the premises. Deep Blue and
Wildcats have mad these consessions while high street chains such as Ann
Summers brazenly display pictures of an intimate sexual nature.- The licence application only received 20 objections, a paltry number compared with the 200 job losses and almost 200 signatures on a petition campaigning to keep the clubs open.
- Claims that the clubs are detrimental to the lives of women in and around the club have been proved to be unfounded (see my last blog). In fact to the contrary the lives of women working for the clubs see a significant improvement in their lifestyles and women outside the club are in no apparent danger.
- These clubs HELP attract tourists to Leeds in the form of stag parties and groups males from surrounding towns that do not have such clubs. I am yet to hear of a tourist reconsider visiting a City because it has a lap dancing club. These clubs help to make Leeds the diverse cosmopolitan City it is.
- Leeds City Council gave no criterion before deciding to limit the number of SEV’s in Leeds to four. It appears the decision was made to refuse licenses to Deep Blue, Wildcats and Red Leopard and THEN derive the policy around that decision.
Red Leopard / Directors on the other hand I have little sympathy for. They have not appealed against the decision, have made no concessions to comply with council objectives and are tarnishing the reputation of the industry by continuing to trade in the manner they are.
The venue is blatantly still trading as a strip club, with all signage still visable, openings earlier than all the other clubs and still using promotional vehicles banned under the 2012 licence. The sooner the council closes this club down the better for the law-abiding venues such as Wildcats and Deep Blue.
Wildcats and Deep Blue deserve to be a granted a licence this week to trade as legal, law abiding SEVs which will in no way effect the councils vision for a visitor and child friendly city.
They have gone above and beyond any kind of voluntary compliance that could be expected and have shown their commitment to keeping their staff employed.
Whether Leeds has four, five or ten Sexual Entertainment Venues it will remain a vibrant city, full of culture and diversity that will continue to attract tourists from all walks of life.
I hope the judges of Leeds High Court realise this on Thursday and grant the licenses that Deep Blue and Wildcats deserve that weren’t granted because of a flawed policy, with little public consultation, even less public support and absolutely no criteria for selecting the four SEV’s anyway.
If you would like to see the council stop wasting tax payers money, grant the licenses and leave the owners and employees to go about their lawful business, then please sign the petition below to show your support
www.gopetition.com/petitions/dance.html
