Lynne Featherstone

Hurrah! News reaches me that the applicants for the lap-dancing club have not appealed the decision of Haringey Licensing committee which refused their application after a long and sustained campaign by LapOff supported by myself and LibDem Cllr Dave Winskill.

They had three weeks after the refusal to lodge an appeal, but time ran out last Thursday.

Dave has been ferocious in his support for local people in this campaign where it was clearly location that was the issue. It was up close to a primary school and a girls secondary school, vulnerable people and generally just a busy local shopping parade in the middle of a residential area with lots of families. Just wrong place.

The law of the land is changing to recognise that lap-dancing clubs should no longer simply have the same license as an ordinary clubs or pubs - but which will have to apply for licenses as 'sex-encounter' establishments in the future where location will be a prime consideration.

Over my years in Haringey I have campaigned and fought alongside local people against all sorts of things and for all sorts of things - but I just want to pay tribute to those involved in the LapOff campaign - who were committed, tireless and did the work and the research that gave those members sitting on Haringey Licensing more than enough reasons to refuse the permission. That is the hard graft that successful campaigns require. Congratulations to LapOff.

Comments

1. dreamingspire says:

   18 October 2009 at 8:00 pm

   Not appealing at all when sober. Maybe a little lubrication helps.
   Seriously, well done, and let's hope the new rules make the need for all that campaigning is banished.
   (Not so happy about the Americanism - surely "appealed against the decision...".)