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Protest over lap dancing club near infants school
Ruth Bloomfield23.02.09
Residents are fighting plans to set up a late-night lap dancing club in a north London suburb.
Protesters in Crouch End say the planned club - a former Salvation Army citadel - is just a few minutes from an infants school.
They are objecting to an application lodged with Haringey council by the owners of the Music Palace in Tottenham Lane to alter the terms of its licence to allow lap dancing.
The palace, a music venue specialising in jazz, blues and country, is near Rokesly Infants and Junior School which is drawing up its objection to the move. The venue already opens until 2am at weekends and midnight during the week.
The Victorian building was a Salvation Army Citadel from 1914 until the mid-Seventies.
Councillor David Winskill, who represents the local ward, said: "The first reaction when people heard about this was absolute shock and amazement.
"Crouch End is a small, local shopping centre with good restaurants and independent family-owned shops. It is a happy family area. People were absolutely stunned.
"The Music Palace is pretty well run, but in the past there have been issues with noise and public order and the lives of the local people were made a nightmare.
"This is not a moral crusade. This is about a development that is totally inappropriate in a residential area where there is a school around the corner."
Lara Towner, 38, who lives near the venue, said: "I have two young children and this is not the sort of thing that I want to have to explain to them. I am also worried about unsavoury characters lurking about.
"It will also play havoc with our property prices, and could not come at a worse time. I shall certainly be objecting to these plans." A spokesman for Haringey said the application was under consultation until 3 March. He added: "It will then be up to the licensing committee to consider the matter. Residents have been notified, making it clear this is an application for a lap dancing club."
The row follows a national boom in lap dancing venues since the Licensing Act was introduced in 2003.
Not only did the act introduce 24-hour drinking but it watered down the rules governing sex shows, forcing councils to regard applications in the same way as licences for any venue.
Last year it was announced that the Government planned to reclassify the clubs as "sex encounter" venues and give local authorities stronger powers to prevent them opening.
Nobody from the Music Palace was available for comment.
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