Diana Johnson: Give communities say on lap-dancing clubs

Those clubs have increasingly become a feature of the high streets over the past 20 years. Many communities feel that this is happening all around them and that they have little say in the matter. My Bill is about empowering all local communities to have their views heard, in particular their views about lap-dancing clubs.

It is also about giving local people the ability to feel that they can start to reclaim their high streets.

Lap-dancing clubs are a fairly new phenomenon in the UK – they first appeared outside London in about 1995 – but their growth has been rapid, and that has caused real concern. Some people will ask why that concern exists.

Chris Knight is the vice-chair — an apt title, given the nature of the lap dancing industry – of the Lap Dancing Association. He has said on Radio Humberside that the clubs were “legitimate businesses and any attack on any business is ridiculous”.

According to Mr Knight, elected MPs should keep their noses out of that business. Let us be clear: this man also opposed the previous reform of the law in this area. I believe that if members of the public are concerned about this, MPs should be concerned too.

As well as the specific concerns about the links between the sex entertainment industry and coercion and human trafficking, there is a widespread view that lap-dancing clubs can contribute in a negative way to the general character of an area and detract from the residents’ quality of life, especially if the clubs are located in residential areas or near schools.

One such local resident, Tara, has said: “For a time I lived next door to a pub that hosted table dancing. I was a support worker to adults with learning disabilities and worked shifts, often ending at 11pm. On those days I was afraid to go home because of the time it took to unlock the door...

“I was frightened of the men who came out of that pub, especially the men in groups leering at women walking past... I was frightened of being followed into my flat because those men seemed to think that they had a right to do anything they liked.

“They would stare at me, make comments to each other about my legs... I moved as soon as I could, because of that.”

I personally dislike the industry but I am not seeking to ban the clubs. I just want to create greater recognition of what their presence can do to a local neighbourhood or town centre. In particular, I want all communities and elected councils to have a say over the operation of these venues in general across their local area.

Why does the law need amending? The Licensing Act 2003 aimed to consolidate the licensing procedure for different types of venue. That was a noble aim, but it had the unintended consequence of making it much easier to open lap-dancing clubs, and they started to mushroom in number as a result.

The previous Labour government responded by introducing a special licensing category for sexual entertainment venues, which allowed councils to implement specific licensing conditions on lap-dancing clubs. They were adoptive powers, which means that there was no requirement on local authorities to use them.

However, if councils did choose to use them, they had a range of measures open to them, including governing the areas in which such clubs could open, taking into account their proximity to residential areas, schools or places of worship; the hours in which they could open; what type of advertising they could conduct; and what they could show on the outside of the premises. The change in the law also gave councils the ability to cap the overall number of venues if they so wished.

My Bill is not particularly radical. It seeks to build on the law as it currently stands and would require all local authorities to adopt the full range of powers available to them and consult their local communities for their views on such premises.

Where the powers have been adopted, we see communities again having their say in what goes on in their local area. For example, the Labour council in Haringey was a pioneer in adopting these powers and setting a borough-wide limit of zero clubs.

I am not seeking to impose some draconian new ban from Whitehall on any activity that is freely and legally participated in, or to restrict legitimate entertainment businesses. I merely want local people and councillors to have more power to resist the spread of sleaze in their neighbourhoods and for current best practice in local government to become universal.

• Diana Johnson is the Labour MP for Hull North who has introduced a Bill in the House of Commons calling for greater regulation over the licensing of lap dancing clubs.