This part of the 2009 Police and Crime act was concocted by a coven of fem Nazis in New Labour including Blackman-Woods, Smith {then Home secretary before resigning in disgrace over expenses}, and of course Harriet Harman who seem to have it set in her tiny, single issue mind that lap dancing clubs were the root of all evil in Britain today.
The policy was dressed up as giving local people choice at the time, Harman {left} said
“If people don’t want to have a sleazy lap dancing club in their neighbourhood, they shouldn’t be forced to have one, which is why we’re changing the law so local people can object and say ‘we don’t want this’ in our area because it’s a sex establishment “
The real reason of course had nothing whatsoever to do with local democracy and everything to do with giving local authorities the power to arbitrarily close down well managed {they could already close down badly managed ones} venues which feature naked women as entertainment for a mix of moral and political reasons.
A response was asked of councils and although over 70% did not bother to reply it was deemed to have “overwhelming support” and passed through parliament and the councils have started to act on this in the last few months. Most councils, after a consultation exercise notable mainly for a complete lack of interest by the general public {eg Hammersmith claimed “81% support” based on just 59 responses out of a borough of 160,000, Weymouth got just 4 !}, have adopted the new sex encounter licenses and either set the maximum number of licenses at the current number of clubs or set no limit at all.
Hackney on the other hand adopted a “nil” policy across the whole borough meaning that the 4 old fashioned strip pubs which had been in business for over 20 years {long before the fictional boom in lap dance clubs post 2004} , and had been forced to have a separate “sex encounter” license by the borough costing them £24,000 a year on top of their normal rates for the last 7 or 8 years, would have to close. The “nil” policy cannot be appealed in the normal way so the pubs were faced with either closing down or going to a very expensive judicial review process.
Hackney in the meantime indulged in a sham public consultation confident no doubt of a majority of nimbys in a tiny poll winning them the day. Here in Property Week,
“The council says it is bringing in the “nil policy” because that is what the locals want” Councillor Chris Kennedy {right}, chairman of Hackney’s licensing committee, says residents do not want strip clubs or sex shops.
“Previously, people have been against strip clubs opening. Some of the biggest attendances I’ve seen at town hall meetings have been new applications under the old legislation, that have been packed out with residents saying, ’We don’t want this’.”
The sincerity of this public consultation can be gauged by the fact that Kennedy refused to meet the strip pub owners or dancers and when in the end a council meeting was reluctantly arranged only 1 councillor {out of 57} turned up and he was under strict instructions from the legal department not to comment or indulge in any debate.
However the Hackney strip pubs have been around for a long time and did not take this lying down, the management of the 2 most famous ones are women who are made of much sterner stuff. Browns and the White Horse {left} have been operated by the same local families for over 30 years and these days both have female owners. They mobilised their staff, dancers, local businesses , friends, union branches, and customers and produced an excellent video on the situation as well as holding a demo outside the Town Hall.
The campaign got support from Equity, GMB, TUC, residents associations and even the local vicar opposite Browns, Police told of no public order problems associated with the strip pubs. In stark contrast with all the other “ consultations” on this subject this survey actually received over 2,700 responses of which more than 67% of whom were against the nil policy proposed. In fact over 75% of those living in the actual district of the current strip pubs opposed a ban. Here is the report:
https://www.engagespace.co.uk/engage/hackney/uploaddocs/Consult1991/Nil_Policy_Consultation_Report_-_FINAL.pdf
Given that the whole justification of this nonsense was to give local people more of a say you would think that the likes of Kennedy {a 9th rate thespian who obviously has clearly not yet fully mastered “the method” when playing the part of a democrat } would accept the voice of the people and drop the whole idea at this point.
Instead though local democracy was demonstrated by ignoring the result completely and railroading the “nil” policy through at the council meeting on Jan 26th with the proviso that existing strip pubs which are “well managed” will be granted an exemption {and presumably asked to carry on paying for their sex encounter license} until they can think of some other way to close them down….or at least wait until the current storm has gone quiet.
Bet they don’t make the mistake of asking the public what it thinks again when they next decide to do what the “public wants”. Only 2 members of Hackney council {twinned with Pyongyang} voted against the party whip so the borough has now got a totally unnecessary joke policy which nobody except a few fem Nazis and the councillors themselves wanted. After telling the pub owners they would be able to speak at the meeting the local councillors manipulated procedures to ensure this would not happen, obviously you don’t want to confuse lobby fodder with facts.
The 2 pub owners are looking to challenge this ruling in the courts and given that Hackney council combines it’s Stalinist attitude to democracy with the administrative competence of a banana republic I’d expect them to win. This will no doubt leave the ignored ratepayers with a large legal bill to pick up just at the time the council is already cutting services . Local politics in Hackney, where the majority pay for the minorities idiocy!
Tyke
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East London Strippers Collective organizes a stripping festival
Author: Saxon
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