UK Lap Dancing and Strip Clubs Latest

Many industries will have difficulty recovering from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic - and the adult entertainment industry is no exception.

Colchester's strip club Climax recently went into liquidation leaving about ten erotic dancers unemployed.

Bristol City Council, Bristol's mayor and the Avon & Somerset police commissioner are all uniting in a proposal to ban lap dancing in Bristol.

Councillors will be asked to approve a new draft policy that would ban lap dancing venues from operating anywhere in Bristol. The proposed ban, which would go out to a 12-week public consultation, appears in an appendix of an item to be considered by the licensing committee on Monday, March 8.

It seems heartless to ban workers in a sector that has been forced to close during the last year due to coronavirus lock downs. Especially as surveys show most Bristolians are happy with them as long as they are away from certain areas, including schools , housing estates, parks, women's refuges and places of worship.

The prominent proponents of the mean minded proposal are Bristol mayor Marvin Rees, Avon & Somerset police and crime commissioner Sue Mountstevens and Bristol West MP Thangam Debbonaire .

If the policy is adopted by the council, both of the existing venues -- sister venues Urban Tiger and Central Chambers -- would be forced to close. At the two clubs' annual licence renewal hearings in 2019, pole-dancers said they were feminists also and had a right to choose how they earned a living.

The draft policy also includes the licensing of sex shops but no there no plans to change the current maximum of two each in both the city centre and Old Market/West Street and zero in other areas.

Update: Bristol Council takes the next step to banning lap dancing

10th March 2021. See article from thebristolcable.org

Passions ran high as councillors voted narrowly to send a proposed ban on lap-dancing clubs in Bristol out to public consultation.

Licensing committee members voted 7-6, with one abstention, on Monday (March 8) to ask residents and interest groups what they thought of a new draft policy setting the maximum number of sexual entertainment venues (SEVs) to zero.

But the decision, which could force the closure of the city's two city centre SEVs Urban Tiger and Central Chambers and put hundreds of mostly female jobs at risk, was described as monstrous and pandering to the views of women's rights activists on moral grounds.

Blackpool Council wants to create a monopoly for 1 sex shop to be allowed in the town and also it wants to ban any new lap dancing clubs, presumably on grounds of its view on morality.

Councillors are being asked to approve a new policy which would permit only one monopoly sex shop, and which would ban new lap dancing clubs.

Four existing clubs would be allowed to continue operating, but once those licences lapse for any reason they would not be renewed.

Licensing chiefs say the move better reflects Blackpool's aim to be a 'family' resort, and its support of the White Ribbon campaign against adult entertainment.

Members of the council's licensing committee are being asked to agree to reduce the number of permitted sex shops from the current two, down to one.

The policywill go before the council's licensing committee on Tuesday January 19 for consideration.

A much harassed strip club which closed in March due to coronavirus restrictions has decided not to apply to renew its licence.

Spearmint Rhino, which has been on Brown Street in Sheffield for 18 years, has surrendered its sexual entertainment venue licence and handed over its alcohol licence to another operator.

The club recently won a high-profile battle to renew the licence for a six-month period last September after a campaign by women's equality campaigners. But Sheffield City Council said the club has now withdrawn its latest application.

In the summer, the club dropped a privacy case against feminist campaigners who commissioned non consensual and secret filming of dancers at work.

Some strip club dancers, who have not worked since March, have said the industry has been hit hard by coronavirus pandemic restrictions. So presumably much of this latest decision was down to economic reality rather than more political issues.