Nigel Martin

Those still exercised by the saga of the lap dancing application for The Loft in North Road might like to look at the story in today’s guardian: www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/apr/22/planning.communities

A group of MPs and peers have published a report calling on the government to change the law so that lap dancing is explicitly licensed under the ’sex-industry’ rules (that cover the likes of sex shops) rather than the normal licensing procedures.

The report points out that across the country it has proved pretty nigh impossible for the current law to prevent the spread of these places. Indeed, Durham is quoted as the only example where an application has been turned down on appeal at the magistrates court. Even that is being taken to a higher court.

So those who say that the original advice given to councillors was wrong (when they gave a restricted licence) are clearly not supported by the evidence of what is happening elsewhere in the UK. It follows that the Labour minister who told our MP that the current laws were adequate also has no idea what this is all about.

I think there is irony here. I have a strong suspicion that if the council Licensing Committee had originally turned down the application altogether, then the operators would have appealed and the group of people opposing it might not have done the additional work that I think persuaded the magistrates to do the right thing. In that scenario the magistrates may have found it hard to resist an appeal - and I say that because everywhere else, that is the way things actually turned out!