Lap dancing club pole-axed
by Hammersmith and Fulham Press Office
06/11/2008
Hundreds of residents were last night (November 6) celebrating news that a lap dancing club will not be opening on their doorstep.
They burst into cheers when Hammersmith & Fulham Council's licensing sub-committee refused a variation application to turn the upper part of the Fox Tavern on North End Crescent into a lap dancing and stripping club, called the Kensington Suite, owned by Passion Nights Ltd. There was even a standing ovation and stamping of feet from the 200-strong crowd of residents.
Over 1,000 letters of objection from local people, including a petition signed by 250 residents, were received by the council, claiming that the club would not meet the four licensing requirements. These relate to the prevention of crime and disorder in the area, protection of children from harm, public safety and the prevention of public nuisance.
There were also concerns from the council’s environmental protection department about noise from customers leaving the club in the early hours of the morning - something that was echoed by many residents, including Ann Geary, estate manager of North End House.
She said that residents were ‘extremely concerned’ that there would be no break from the noise nuisance seven days a week. She said: “It is felt that noise disturbance problems in the area and particularly into the early hours of the morning will increase. Club users entering and particularly exiting into the streets at closing time will create a public nuisance.”
There were also outcries that the club would encourage crime and anti-social behaviour in the area. But Richard Barca, representing David Moynihan, managing director of Passion Nights Ltd, said that security at the lap dancing club would be stringent.
Mr Barca said: “There will be no drugs allowed on the premises at all – people will be searched at the door and there will be random bag searched. There would be instant dismissal for any member of staff found with drugs.”
Speaking of residents' representations he said: “Objections boil down to residents simply not wanting this club in their area.”
Objector Patsy Heavey, of Stonor Road, West Kensington, said in a letter to the council: “A lap dancing club and its clientele can have nothing but a detrimental effect on the moral, psychological and even physical wellbeing of the 100-235 young people who live in the southeast corner of the ward."
Elena Martinez said: “I believe that the opening of this sort of club will not bring any good to the area, to the contrary, it will bring trouble and will break the peace and good behaviour of the youth in the area.”
And Frederic Fontaine said: “I believe this type of establishment will attract drug dealers and drunken, rowdy clientele.”
On the night, the council’s licensing sub-committee agreed with residents and rejected the application.
Councillor Victoria Brocklebank-Fowler, chairman of the licensing sub-committee, said: “We considered the application very carefully and did not believe that all the points had been fully addressed. We share residents' concerns that the club would not prevent crime and disorder in the area.”
Joe Carlebach, local resident and co-chair of the Avonmore & Brook Green Safer Neighbourhood Ward Panel, said: “It was the outcome we wanted and the result of a lot of hard work from residents. We’re very pleased with the decision.”
The case has drawn wide interest regionally, particularly in light of recent protestations on licensing laws, where clubs currently only need a premises licence giving them permission to sell alcohol.
Women's rights campaigners, the Fawcett Society and Object called on the Government to tighten the law and reclassify such clubs as ‘sex encounter establishments’ - the stricter category that sex shops and sex cinemas fall under. The regulations are much tighter, local authorities have more power and a licence costs a lot more money.
Chairman of London Councils, Merrick Cockell, has been leading the campaign to reinstate discretionary powers that allow councils to impose conditions on entertainment licences in a private Bill to Parliament.
He said: “It is important that democratically accountable local authorities have the appropriate powers to stem the growing tide of strip clubs being located in inappropriate, often residential, areas.”
Mr Moynihan already has a licence for the pub and has plans to re-open it as champagne and wine bar, called The Crescent. Georgina Baillie, who was recently caught in the middle of the recent Radio 2 furore with Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand, has already been booked to appear at the club later this month with her band, Satanic Sluts.
