Temptations of the Flesh

[Acrylic-bob]

I had to laugh when I read about the planning application for the Lap Dancing Club in Accrington. I just think the whole thing and the fuss about it is so funny and so Accrington.
But one thing I read in the Observer article gave me pause for thought.
Cllr. Gareth Molineux is reported as justifing his decision before a full council in the following terms...
"We considered the Home Office guidance.
It’s not a residential area and not in a sensitive location near services targeted at children. Nor are there buildings nearby used for tourism or religious purposes."

I had to wonder at the familiarity with Accrington town centre, or rather the lack of it, dispalyed by Cllr. Molineux.

It is not in a sensitive location near services targeted at children.
Does Quattro's ban children then?

Is Blackburn Road and the front of the Market Hall not frequented by children on a daily basis?

Nor are there buildings nearby used for tourism
Town Hall Information Centre?
Market Hall?
Bus Station?
Taxi Ranks?

or religious purposes
St James' Church?

Please don't misunderstand me. I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of Kevin Logan's fan club. In fact I am of the firm conviction that the sooner he disappears up his own testament the better it would be for everyone.
But, The Observer, continues...
At last week's full council meeting, a written question from campaign leader Rev Kevin Logan asked why councillors considered the club would "fit the character of our town."
He claimed they had allowed licence applications to be rubber-stamped without debate.
He told the Observer: "The council acted high-handedly in adopting this law to grant Sexual Entertainment Licences without any consultation and with hardly any notice.
"All they did was put up a small typewritten note on a lamp-post in the town centre and a small ad in the local newspaper. If the councillors think that in certain circumstances such a sex entertainment venue is in keeping with the town, and their ruling implies this, then they have a very low view of Accrington.
"It will be next to the town hall and across the way from the parish church, and at the exact place where hundreds of children disembark from their school buses."

I feel that in such circumstances Logan has got the matter pretty spot on, though for exactly the wrong reasons.

Is this just another example of HBC acting in our name but without even pausing to consider what we might actually want or need?
Is it appropriate to site a Lap Dancing establishment directly opposite the Town Hall and Market Hall?

[Margaret Pilkington]

A-B....the answers to your questions are :-
1) yes.....but then, they are good at doing that.
2) No. The fact that this guy Gareth Molineux has to justify why the he feels it a fitting place confirms this.
Citing Home Office regulations smacks of his lack of real conviction in what his justification is.

[Gordon Booth]

Originally Posted by Acrylic-bob

Is it appropriate to site a Lap Dancing establishment directly opposite the Town Hall and Market Hall?

Perhaps they're thinking how handy it will be for the councillors and Town hall staff?

[jaysay]

The only thing is this application had to be looked at through planning regulations not moral obligation, giving the place a licence is a totally different matter though, but so longs as the premises met planing regulations they would have to grant it, I'm not sure whether the full criteria was met, to me parking would certainly be an issue

[mobertol]

Originally Posted by Gordon Booth

Perhaps they're thinking how handy it will be for the councillors and Town hall staff?

There has been a whole thread about the Lap Dance Club -very popular in the sense it got loads of replies. Don't know if the actual position of the premises was raised though...

Will it be garishly advertised at street level with bright lights, music and the usual photos to entice the clients in.... Or would it be discreet and wrapped in brown paper to disguise the product contents...?

Get your point completely though Acrylic, it would lower the tone in a certain sense -but wherever it eventually sets up there will always be those against it for their own puritanical agendas...Do you have any thoughts about a better location your good self?

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by jaysay

The only thing is this application had to be looked at through planning regulations not moral obligation, giving the place a licence is a totally different matter though, but so longs as the premises met planing regulations they would have to grant it, I'm not sure whether the full criteria was met, to me parking would certainly be an issue

I was actually going to ask if one of our councillors could actually clarify planning regs concerning these premises, but they don't post on here these days

[Acrylic-bob]

I am honestly, so not being puritanical about this. But, well, its not as though there are not a plethora of empty pubs in the town. And I am sure that there are quite a few that are still trading who would not turn their noses up at the business.

It's just this guy Molineux and his risable explanation that gets my goat. I could even understand his lack of knowlege if the place were to be sited in some backwater of the town. But, come on, not near services aimed at children, not near a religious building not near tourists - in the town centre?

Some days you can feel the will to live just drain away.

[Acrylic-bob]

Of course, to look at it another way. If you were going to open up a Lap Dancing club where is the last place you would site it?

[mobertol]

Originally Posted by Acrylic-bob

Some days you can feel the will to live just drain away.

Never crossed my mind to include you in the puritanical set

You wouldn't get a Lap Dance club opposite The Houses of Parliament now would you? Similar establishments are close enough for the MP's to get there on foot after a hard days slog though, i'm sure, or at most a short taxi ride away... (Haven't been down that way for 25 years ...)

The lack of "Class" in general in Accrington is painful to see though, so I know what you mean -poverty of aspirations (Not my words of course!) - it's a very diffuse and catching disease.

[Acrylic-bob]

It strikes me that since the early seventies, those who had the get up and go, increasingly got up and went, decamping to nice places in the Ribble Valley and elsewhere. Where the air was clean, the houses reassuringly expensive and where the hoi-polloi and immigrants were hardly ever seen.

If you are looking for one reason above all others for the decline in the borough, it is that...

White Flight.

[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by Acrylic-bob

Of course, to look at it another way. If you were going to open up a Lap Dancing club where is the last place you would site it?

Best place for it would be next to a mosque.

[Acrylic-bob]

From a purely business point of view you are probably not far off the mark there, but there would have to be a discreet back entrance.

[mobertol]

Originally Posted by Acrylic-bob

If you are looking for one reason above all others for the decline in the borough, it is that...

White Flight.

Spot on -though it's probably politically incorrect to be so candid (no pun on white intended!)

I don't count myself as my own movement was more circumstancial.

But in the past 10 years: My parents have sold up and de-camped to Tenerife; my sister, brother-in-law and their 3 children have emigrated to New Zealand; his sister and her family moved there 2 years ago and my cousin and her family also moved to NZ 6 years ago....apart from my parents who are retired, they are all working professionals whose children are now in higher education...what a loss to the Accy and to the UK in general...this is the true extent of the brain drain -i don't believe my family is exceptional in this respect.

[Acrylic-bob]

Perhaps another unlooked for benefit of the coming collapse, may be more of a willingness in society to re-evaluate our position in the world and ask blunt questions about wether we are content with the legacy of the last forty years. The answers could be seismic. This time next year we could be looking at a very different Britain.

[wallop79]

At the end of the day all it is is another pub with scantily clad women dancing & grating trying to get men to part with their dosh. Just the same as every other pub in town, only difference is these women make a lot of money for doing their job. The other women are just out trying to get a free drink off a fella, a free kebab & maybe a bit of how's yer father. This is going to create jobs & maybe get more people into Accy spending their money, that cant be a bad thing in itself. It doesn't harm anyone, it ain't a brothel.