Swingers’ club and lapdancing bar set to be granted licences

La Chambre, in Attercliffe Road, previously operated under a standard alcohol licence.

However, owing to new licensing regulations which have been adopted to give local authorities more power in determining where venues such as lapdancing bars and sex clubs should be located, it has now been forced to apply for a licence as a “sexual entertainment venue”.

In the application to Sheffield Council’s licensing board, owner Linda Calvert says there are four “playrooms” at La Chambre, which has no organised entertainment such as lapdancing or pole dancing.

She does, however, say there are areas where “adult members can participate and be viewed in acts of an adult nature”.

She adds that “rules are supplied to all new members and reiterated on a tour of the premises. Staff monitoring is constant”.

The new licence for La Chambre is set to be considered at a meeting of Sheffield Council’s licensing board on Wednesday.

At the same meeting, councillors will also consider granting a sexual entertainment licence for the “Scores” strip bar on Charter Row in Sheffield city centre.

Like La Chambre, the bar has had to apply for the new licence owing to new powers under the Policing and Crime Act 2009.

Sheffield Council adopted the new guidelines last year, which mean that sex clubs have until May 1 this year to either gain a new licence or be closed down.

No objections have been received to the application for Scores, which is described as a “gentlemen’s club” in the licensing papers.

The application from Basco Leisure says it intends to rename Scores as the “Villa Mercedes Gentlemen’s Club” and adds that the bar provides fully nude lap- dancing and topless pole dancing.

Basco Leisure’s application says: “There shall be no physical contact between customers and performers whilst performers are dancing, except for the placing of tokens in a garter or in the hands of a dancer at the beginning or end of dancing.

“Customers will remain seated while watching the performance.

“Nudity amongst performers shall be confined to the dance booths and VIP booths only.”

Meanwhile, another application for a sexual entertainment licence at the other side of Sheffield city centre is at the centre of a public outcry.

While no opposition has been raised to the applications for either La Chambre or Villa Mercedes, more than 50 people have raised objections to the licensing application from the Spearmint Rhino lapdancing bar in Brown Street.

A total of 56 letters of objection have been submitted in relation to Spearmint Rhino’s application, claiming that its location in the Cultural Industries Quarter is unsuitable.

Opponents say the area has become a “cultural hub”, with four galleries, more than 200 workspaces for artists and other creative people, Sheffield Hallam Art School and Hallam university students’ union.

One objector wrote to Sheffield Council: “As a woman, as a mother and as a proud citizen of Sheffield I am offended and embarrassed by the presence of a lap dancing club in the heart of our Cultural Industries Quarter.

“This establishment promotes women as passive objects of entertainment and normalises this objectification as a ‘fun night out’ for the boys.”

Sonfield Developments points out in the Spearmint Rhino licensing application that the premises has operated for nine years on the current site, next to the former National Centre for Popular Music, and no complaints have been received.Spearmint Rhino’s application will be considered tomorrow.