Legal Challenge to Lap Dance Licence
IN DECEMBER 2007 residents in Durham challenged a decision to grant a licence for a lap dancing club in the city. Kirsty Thomas and Dr Desmond Evans along with many others are appealing a decision made by Durham City Council in August 2007 on the basis that the lap dancing club will fail to promote public safety, will add to the already high levels of nuisance and disorder along North Road, and will harm children both morally and psychologically.
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ON 6TH AND 7TH DECEMBER, witnesses gave evidence about how the lap dancing activities would harm the moral and psychological welfare of children who pass the club on their way to the bus stop, and how it would prevent large numbers of the public from feeling safe as they walked along North Road. Residents were also concerned that the already troubled North Road area would deteriorate further following the introduction of this type of sexual entertainment.
When considering an application for a licence, Durham City Council’s licensing authority must promote several licensing objectives which include preventing crime and disorder, promoting public safety, preventing public nuisance and protecting children from harm. Barrister Ian Miller argued that, taking into account evidence about the current problems in the North Road area of Durham, and the risks created if the decision to grant a licence was upheld, the licensing authority had breached its duty to promote these objectives. By facilitating lap dancing at the club, crime and disorder will increase, public safety will be endangered and, most importantly, children will be morally and psychologically harmed. Residents hope that the court will overturn the decision to grant a lap dancing licence to ‘The Loft’.
Copy of the Magistrates' findings
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