Bristol SEV consultation

[Victor23]

Bristol Post

One of the comments: "I'd love to know what she plans on doing about the 60 plus brothels that operate illegally in the city! How can you want to ban strip clubs but turn a blind eye to brothels. The police, council and MPs allow these brothels to operate but do nothing about it! Does she really think that brothels do not cause harm to women and girls. We all know that brothels are main cause of exploitation and trafficking not strip clubs but Thangam Debbonaire has no mention of these venues. The stupidest thing I ever heard is to not keep strip clubs legally regulated. All that will happen is these venues will go underground, not be regulated, have unsafe working conditions for the women and be run be unsuitable applicants to put it politely."

[Redvee]

Despite objections from several parties, including the Police the two SEVs have been granted for Urban Tiger and Central Chambers.

Two of Bristol’s most prominent strip clubs have been granted licences despite calls for the council to reject their applications.

Urban Tiger and Central Chambers can continue to offer strip shows and lap dances after Bristol City Council renewed their Sexual Entertainment Venue licences.

It follows a number of objections to the applications by police, residents and politicians, who say strip clubs are exploitative and degrading to women and should not be present in such prominent city centre locations.

[pleasure_seeker]

Bristol City Council have been consulting on their SEV policy, including a questionnaire survey. The consultation closed 31st May 2018 but nothing has been made public about the results so far.

Policy Review

The Labour MP seems to have made up her mind well in advance of any results but some sensible voices in response:
Thangam_twitter

[TonyN]

The mayor was against clubs but after a lot of pressure from Dancers he went quiet However that was a moral judgement as the mayor is religious. I look forward to hearing the result here.

[The Great Smell Of Brute]

The consultation closed 31st May 2018 but nothing has been made public about the results so far.

More time required, in order to doctor the results convincingly?

[sinless69uk]

Article in Bristol Post
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bris ... ng-2507050

Questionnaire results
https://democracy.bristol.gov.uk/docume ... pp%20C.pdf

SEV details from page 33.

[TonyN]

Reading the figures looks like a question was misunderstood as the figures are all over the place. But the councillors have been told there is violence associated with venues against woman. Now Lilith is not quoted but it is the typical rubbish.

I am looking to support the local campaigners as necessary.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bris ... ap-2850566

[Victor23]

Some of the best collections of comments regarding the usual rubbish claims that I've read. Hopefully someone (Tony?) will query the "violence against women" allegation by "experts".

[TonyN]

I have emailed the cllr Fi Hance who was quoted as seeing the figures just to ask what the figures were. No response yet but I have pointed the Bristol sex workers collective to the parts of the blog that may help.We will wait to see if the councillor does actually respond.

[TonyN]

Shock horror councillor replies. Claims that the only information she received was from local womens group and Fawcett society. I have briefly introduced her to Lilith/Eden and the Not buying it PDF and explained how they are "lies". I was careful to avoid that word and use misrepresentation instead. So not sure if there will be any further contact but I think I need to write a letter for e-mailing that covers how wrong some of the stuff is. When we see a license renewal or consultation the committee for the license will be being contacted.

[TonyN]

The consultation is now live and according tp the local online paper councillors have been lied to by womens groups claiming links to violence against women without supplying citations.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bris ... bs-3231927

[Redvee]

councillors have been lied to by womens groups claiming links to violence against women without supplying citations.

That's always brought up by the likes of Fawcett Society etc, pretty sure I read about a licencing meeting for one of the clubs in Bristol where this was brought up and the police said they'd had no reports of such relating to customers of the club in question. Following the Fawcett Society on Twitter is a good way of finding out about licencing meetings as they attend to object on the flimsiest of grounds and tweet throughout the meeting but tend to go quiet when the club gets the licence renewed.

[TonyN]

I have often written to councillors expliaining the history of the claim, the debunking and the fact the claims are no longer cited. However no mstter how much I write the NGOs are much more believable than myself. It is rare I even get acknowledgement that they read the e-mail.

I still carry on when I read articles about councillors making the claim, I write to them but it is like writing to a brick wall.

[sinless69uk]

Consultation here

https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/SexEstablishmentPolicy/

[Victor23]

What relevance do some of the last questions have, especially "20. Are you pregnant or have you given birth in the last 26 weeks?"

[The Great Smell Of Brute]

Gotta consider the kiddies!

[Victor23]

Two city centre lap-dancing clubs have had their annual sex entertainment licences renewed despite dozens of objections.

"There was no objection from the police or Bristol City Council’s regulatory services after officers found no breaches of rules during visits and reviewing CCTV footage."

[Redvee]

The local Fawcett Society must be overcome with emotion, haven't seen anything from them on Twitter about this decision.

[The Great Smell Of Brute]

So am I!

[pleasure_seeker]

Lap dancers protest in Bristol at plan to shut down clubs
Women who work in Bristol’s two main lapdancing clubs have taken their campaign for the venues to stay open to City Hall.
They say more than 100 jobs will be lost if Bristol City Council’s licensing committee goes ahead with a proposal to withdraw licences for the sexual entertainment venues in the city centre.

[The Great Smell Of Brute]

It's gratifying to see dancers making their views known in public, in the face of what looks very much like an attempt by Mayor Marvin Rees to get the 'correct' result this time around.

[The Great Smell Of Brute]

The protest on College Green also made the pages of The Sun:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/14575690/ ... ing-clubs/

[The Great Smell Of Brute]

For the benefit of any of you unfamiliar with Marvin Rees, the Mayor of Bristol:

Marvin the Paranoid Politician (Stripping the Illusion blog - 16/03/16)

[pleasure_seeker]

Banning strip clubs won't help the fight against gender-based violence

Article in the New Statesman.

[sinless69uk]

Twitter showing both clubs kept their licences.