ENGLAND — Adult entertainment is ruining the reputation of a family resort community in England, according to local residents. To help local officials in Bournemouth and other area affected by the unseemly practice of lap dancing in cabarets, on Wednesday members of Parliament took up a suggestion that licensing restrictions be increased nationwide.“Bournemouth has turned into Sin City,” said David Clutterbuck, chairman of the city’s East Cliff and Town Centre Residents Association. “It now has a sleazy reputation.”
As might be expected, a voice for the cabaret industry in Britain countered that the popular clubs are “good clean fun.”
“If you don’t like them, don’t go into them,” Richard Carr, who owns the nude cabaret Wiggle in Bournemouth, told the Bournemouth Echo. “They are good, clean fun and, in fact, a lot of the customers are single women going for a quiet drink. I could also point out that when the Labour conference and the Association of Chief Police Officers’ conference [convened at the Bournemouth International Centre], those were our busiest weeks at the club. So sometimes it seems like those people complaining about the industry are also the ones who use it.”
MPs are concerned about what they view as a rapid expansion in the industry: In 2004, there were about 150 lap-dancing clubs scattered across the country. Now there are about 300.
The fault lies in the lack of an adult-entertainment category for the businesses in the Licensing Act 2003, which allows municipalities to oversee the types of venues that open in their districts. Many local and national legislators want lap-dance establishments — which allow patrons up-close-and-personal encounters with scantily clad or nude performers — classified as “sex encounter” venues, which would put them in the same tightly regulated category with strip clubs, peep shows and sex shops.
“If the Licensing Act 2003 is amended to incorporate an adult entertainment establishment category, it could assist the local authority to limit the number of adult entertainment venues,” according to Steve Wright, principal licensing officer for Bournemouth council.
“At the moment it is quite simple for a pub or club with an entertainment license to make the blurred transition from on-stage entertainment to lap-dancing,” Tobias Ellwood, Conservative MP for Bournemouth East, told the Bournemouth Echo. “I do not want Bournemouth’s reputation as a family resort challenged by the growth in lap-dancing clubs. The council needs the power to be able to control the growth of lap-dancing clubs.”
Licensing Minister Gerry Sutcliffe on June 18 vowed to close the loophole in the licensing act. He has solicited input from local councils after a movement to ban the clubs erupted following applications from six new venues in Brighton.
“Lap-dance clubs are part of the sex industry,” Kat Banyard, a spokeswoman for the women’s rights organization Fawcett Society, told the Sun. “Areas surrounding them can become no-go areas for women. But licensing rules mean local authorities cannot treat a lap-dance club any differently from a coffee shop. We urge the government to untie the hands of authorities by licensing lap-dance clubs as sex-encounter establishments. This would enable communities to have a greater say.”
