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Nottingham Council vs. The World
Teasers - the continuing battle
Not since Charles I raised his flag on Standard Hill has there been such a protracted battle in Nottingham, the city known as the "Queen of the Midlands." Visitors arriving by train turn right out of the station and almost immediately you are in the City Centre recently voted the third best shopping area in Britain (after the West End & Glasgow). Turn left and you are immediately in an area of boarded up shops, derelict premises and within a few hundred yards the notorious Meadows estate. The old Victorian terraces were replaced in the 1960s and 70s by a sprawl of mid density council housing now a run down area which became the first in Britain to be routinely patrolled by armed police following a series of drug-related shootings.

Just 50 yards from the station was a boarded up Asian Restaurant and in April 1999 two local entrepreneurs were given the lease by the council - their intention to open a lap-dancing club called Teasers. Immediately local residents from The Meadows were up in arms saying that the club would be the focus of a "new red-light area." The owners disagreed - they said their club would be a "well run establishment with highly paid professional dancers." Local stipendiary magistrate Mervyn Harris agreed with the owners and imposed a number of conditions but in October 1999 granted a public entertainment license.

The Nottingham City Council, the moral guardians of the general public, disagreed and appealed to the Crown Court. The case was heard in February 2000 when the Council said the club would be "degrading and damage the area." Their appeal was lost, Judge Pitchers allowed the club a license with conditions saying, "The area is in a poor state of repair and Teasers will not in itself transform the area but at least one piece of frontage will be smartened up."

Within a week of losing the appeal the Council produced a new public entertainment license for all premises in the city "specifically prohibiting table, lap and pole dancing." Next month the Council decided not to lease the building to Teasers despite its previous ruling. The affair has rumbled on since then; in June 2000 the Teasers owners appealed to the Local Government Ombudsman and earlier this month they announced that they were to sue the Council for £240,000 in respect of loss of business.

Since passing their new rule in March 2000 several cases have been highlighted. Firstly it was disclosed that a "members-only" lap-dancing club was already operating in the city (Conrad's), in a much more compromising position that Teasers. Secondly the Council has granted a licence for a nude striptease in a gay bar (all in the best possible taste) and also for a one-person nude pole dancing play by a University professor at an art gallery (artistic). All these have given Teasers further ammunition for litigation against the City Council.

From the country's centre for public decency...

[Mega, 26 March 2001]

Nottingham Council vs. The World...
...and The World wins! (kinda...)
The Local Government Ombudsman has found Nottingham City Council guilty of maladministration and injustice over the granting of a lease for the proposed "Teasers" lap-dancing club. She told the council to pay David Morgan, the applicant, £2,500 and give him the lease or pay him £25,000 in costs.

The Ombudsman, Patricia Thomas, branded the Council "shameful" in its treatment of Mr.Morgan who demanded that someone in the Council should pay for its decision. "If this were a corporate body, then there would be calls for the head of the company. Somebody should be accountable," he said.

The Ombudsman also spoke of areas of concern outside the findings and threatened the Council with proceedings under the Local Government Act for obstructing her enquiry. Handwritten notes and paperwork had been removed from the Council files before it was passed to Mrs Thomas, one of which was reportedly from the leader of the Council, Graham Chapman which said "Pull the Plug on Teasers." Mrs Thomas said, "The files have had sensitive and in my view damaging evidence removed. I am forced to ask myself if there is any other evidence that has been withheld from me."

Councillor Chapman said no decision has yet been reached on which option the Council will take. However the Conservative Opposition has called for his immediate resignation, their group leader Cllr Culley said, "in the light of this condemnation, savage beyond anything expected " She added "He is paid to lead the Council and when the Council is brought into disrepute, he should pay the price." At the same time, the Council admitted it was powerless to ban the show "Puppetry of the Penis" from the Theatre Royal as it had no jurisdiction over stage performances.

[Mega, 15th September 2001]


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Subsequent to this it has been reported that the City Council has paid £2,500 to Mr.Morgan whilst the matter of costs is still being negotiated. What is equally clear is that the Council is still persisting in its "no lap dance" stance and although it might find itself sued at some time in the future, there seems little prospect at the present in lap dancing arriving in Nottingham.

[Mega, 13th January 2002]