Ex-lap dancers, Hackney residents and leading women’s rights and equality organisations urge Hackney to set a nil-limit for Sexual Entertainment Venues in the borough.

Hackney council is currently consulting (1) on whether to set a nil-limit on Sexual Entertainment Venues (2) under new licensing laws introduced in April this year (3). This would mean revoking the licenses of the four currently operating strip clubs in the borough. The deadline for the consultation is Monday December 13^th and local residents, women’s groups, and councils across the country are awaiting the decision in anticipation as a nil-policy in a central London borough like Hackney would set a precedent for other councils to follow.   

Human rights group OBJECT (4) is leading a coalition of support for the nil-policy and hundreds of Hackney residents and visitors of the borough have been emailing Hackney Council this week providing personal testimony of their negative experiences both inside and outside of Hackney strip clubs. Stories of sexual assault, harassment, discrimination, ‘no-go’ zones for women and children, and links with prostitution and trafficking have dominated responses to the Hackney council consultation which closes on Monday.

“Lap dancing clubs are not harmless fun. They are often sites of sexual exploitation, they make sexual harassment seem normal, and they create no-go areas for women and children who feel unsafe walking past them at night. Setting a nil-limit on seedy and exploitative strip clubs is an issue of equality, it is taking a stand against the negative messages that lap dancing clubs promote about women and putting a stop to the sexual abuse which takes place inside and outside of clubs.

OBJECT, along with all of the other leading women’s rights and equality groups who have signed the joint statement of support, urge Hackney council not to cave in to pressures from the sex industry and to stand firm in its commitment to stop commercial sexual exploitation in the borough by setting the limit at zero for lap dancing clubs”

Anna van Heeswijk, Campaigns Manager OBJECT

Examples of consultation responses from Hackney residents include:

“I worked in strip clubs for over four years... East London is particularly renowned for its 'seedier' venues ... Many of my colleagues felt that the Hackney clubs were where you ended up if you got a drug addiction or were in real trouble... that these Hackney venues were the worst for trafficked young women... and easily the most prolific venues offering intercourse and oral sex acts.”

“I work in the evenings and often have to walk home late past these places which are intimidating even in the day time.  I've been harassed repeatedly and one time a man blocked my path and attempted to physically pick me up.”

(More examples below)

In less than two hours, OBJECT had an overwhelmingly positive response as members stood outside Hackney Town Hall and collected a further two hundred responses to the consultation urging Hackney Council to impose a nil-limit on lap dancing clubs.

“The strength of feeling on this issue was clear. Hackney residents don’t want sexist and exploitative lap dancing clubs on their high streets”

Alison Dear, Board of Directors OBJECT.

In another move to support Hackney to take a stand against lap dancing clubs, in one day alone dozens of leading women’s organisations and equality groups have already signed up to a joint statement of support calling on Hackney to set a nil-limit for strip clubs, to take a stand against the spread of commercial sexual exploitation (5).

For more details or to arrange an interview contact Anna van Heeswijk, Campaigns Manager at anna@object.org.uk

ENDS

(1) http://www.hackney.gov.uk/3450.htm

(2) Sexual Entertainment Venues are defined by the Home Office Guidance as “any live performance or live display of nudity which is of such a nature that, ignoring financial gain, it must reasonably be assumed to be provided solely or principally for the purpose of sexually stimulating any member of an audience (whether by verbal or other means).” An audience can consist of just one person (e.g. where the entertainment takes place in private booths). It is stated in the Home Office guidance that while local authorities should judge each case on its merits, SEVs would apply to the following forms of entertainment as they are commonly understood: Lap dancing; Pole dancing; Table dancing; Strip shows; Peep shows; Live sex shows. The Home Office Guidance can be found here:  http://www.object.org.uk/files/SEV%20HO%20Guidance.pdf

(3) These extra licensing powers for Sexual Entertainment Venues are granted by Section 27 of the Policing and Crime Act (2009) which came into force April 2010.

(4) OBJECT is a human rights organisation which campaigns against the sexual objectification of women through the mainstreaming of the sex and porn industries. OBJECT spearheaded the Stripping the Illusion Campaign, and in partnership with the Fawcett Society, successfully lobbied for lap dancing clubs to stop being licensed like cafes and to be regulated as part of the sex industry. It is this legislation which allows councils like Hackney to set a limit to the number of lap dancing clubs that it wants in the borough.

(5) A copy of the Joint Statement of Support which includes further information, references and sources can be found here.

More examples of testimony responses:

“Earlier this year whilst waiting for the bus on Shoreditch high street at about midnight, a group of men who were leaving one of the lap dancing bars (The Rainbow Sports bar) verbally harassed me using language of a highly sexualised and offensive nature. Why should I have to put up with that? What is more, how did this group of men then later act towards other women they happened to pass by or meet, especially after a couple more drinks?”

 “I and many other women in the borough have effectively lost out on career progress because we are unwilling to socialise and network in places like these”

 “I run and perform in cabaret nights and no aspect of my work will be  compromised by this nil policy - however as a women living in Hackney I will be safer and freer to walk the streets with the nil policy in place.”

“I am a mother of young children. We pass advertising hoardings for lap dancing clubs when we are going about our daily business.   My 3 year old notices everything around him. What sense is he meant to make of the explicit posters which are designed to be sexually provocative and which so comprehensively degrade and dehumanise women?  Does he begin to see women differently?  What happens to the slightly older children who can read the degrading messages?  And the teenagers who are beginning to explore their own sexuality?  And what should I do as a mother?  I want my boys to grow up respecting women and girls.  These establishments and their advertising undermine this.”

“I would be so proud to live and work in a borough with an overt "nil" policy and believe it would pave the way for boroughs around the country to follow suit, saving thousands of women from daily sexual abuse.”