Council seeks legal limit to strip clubs

9:00am Friday 2nd March 2007

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Town hall chiefs have admitted they are virtually powerless to stop new strip clubs coming to Brighton and Hove.

Four fully-nude venues are set to open over the next few months, raising concern that the city is being flooded by adult entertainment.

Brighton and Hove City Council is now pushing for a change in national policy to allow a ban on all new clubs.

This follows The Argus's revelation that a string of exotic-dancing establishments were in the pipeline.

A motion is to be presented to a meeting of the full council next Thursday asking officers to investigate whether a cap can be introduced.

Councillors will lobby the Government to change its licensing guidelines which allow gentlemen's clubs to hold lap-dancing with the same licence as a church hall featuring line-dancing.

London boroughs are currently the only local authorities in the country allowed to set limits on strip club numbers, and Jeane Lepper, chairwoman of the licensing committee, is pushing for Brighton and Hove to be afforded the same protection.

The motion reads: "The council is convinced that an expansion of this type of entertainment would set the wrong tone for the city, that it could undermine the licensing objectives, particularly in respect of the prevention of crime and disorder and protection of children from harm."

Coun Lepper said: "We want to have some control of what is opening in the city and at the moment we fell that we are almost powerless to stop this.

"We are not just concerned about new venues but also established venues going down that route."

The council also wants to take into account the impact on the character of an area and proximity to schools when discussing bids for new clubs.

And chief executive Alan McCarthy has sanctioned a further review of the council strip-club policy at the overview and scrutiny panel on Monday.

One lap-dancing club, Grace of Brighton in North Street, is set to welcome its first customers on Thursday and two exotic-dancing clubs are also in the pipeline for London Road and Pool Valley.

Brighton and Hove's first fully nude venue - The Rocco Mana in East Street - was given the go-ahead by magistrates last year, overturning the council's initial rejection.

Magistrates ruled that police could not establish the link between strip clubs and disorder and threw out councillors' decision not to grant the Spearmint Rhino-linked venue a licence. The club has yet to open.

The city's current strip clubs - Pussycat, in Church Road, Hove, and sister club Top Totty in Grand Parade, Brighton - are also expected to apply for fully-nude licences which would bring the total number of naked lap-dancing clubs to six.

A spokeswoman for Brighton police said: "Brighton and Hove police are not taking a moral standpoint on this issue but have always expressed their concern that this type of venue will attract the wrong type of visitor to the city which might have an adverse effect on crime and disorder.

"And because of this, it is our opinion that the city does not need more sex-encounter establishments."

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