A campaign to tighten restrictions on lap dancing clubs has been backed by a West Midlands council.

MPs including Lynda Waltho (Lab Stourbridge), Clare Short (Ind Ladywood) and Lynne Jones (Lab Selly Oak) are calling on the Government to close a legal loophole which means strip clubs require no special licences.


Although authorities have the right to say no to sex shops and pornographic cinemas, they have no control over lap dancing clubs because the 2003 Licensing Act puts them in the same category as bars and cafes rather than considering them as places of sexual entertainment.

Warwick District Council has backed calls for a change to the law and warned that the number of lapdancing clubs has doubled in the last five years.

A letter urging the Government to take action was signed by Councillor Barbara Weed, of Warwick District Council, along with representatives of Tower Hamlets and Brighton and Hove Councils.

It says: “Lap dancing clubs are in contradiction to efforts to promote gender equality. Yet by boxing lapdancing clubs into the same licensing category as cafes, and concurrently requiring the promotion of gender equality, the hands of local authorities have been tied.”

A number of bodies supporting tougher laws have stepped up the campaign as a Government consultation on the issue came to a close. Ministers will now consider the responses they have received and decide whether reforms are needed.

Licensing Minister Gerry Sutcliffe wrote to every council in England and Wales for their views on lapdancing clubs in July.

Women’s rights group Object said the current licensing laws had “opened the floodgate” to a dramatic increase in establishments.

Director Sasha Rakoff said: “The solution lies in licensing lap dancing clubs for what they are: venues that provide visual entertainment for sexual stimulation – in other words, sex encounter establishments. We call on the Government to restore democracy to the licensing process and send out a powerful message that buying a lap dance is not the same as buying a cappuccino.”

The Local Government Association has also written to the Government calling for the licensing loophole to be closed.

In a letter to Mr Sutcliffe, LGA vice chairman Sir Jeremy Beecham said: “The new licensing laws were intended to give local people more of a say on how pubs and clubs are run in their area but when it comes to lapdancing establishments councils often find there’s little they can do to respond to people’s wishes.”