MP Backs Residents over sex club

12.00.00am GMT Wed 5th Feb 2003

Last night, MP Vincent Cable attended a public meeting of residents, held at St James Independent School Twickenham, and supported their campaign to reverse the council's approval of an entertainment licence for "table dancing".

Vincent Cable said: "I share the residents concerns that the public consultation process was deeply flawed."

"And I have great sympathy with residents living in the town centre area who have experienced a marked deterioration in their quality of life as a result of drunken, often violent, elements originating in pubs and clubs including the Zen lounge."

"I fail to see how the environment will be improved by bringing in the sex industry. Rich visitors getting drunk on champagne, while ogling strippers, are just as likely, if not more, to cause a serious nuisance in the early hours as local young people getting drunk on beer".

Vincent Cable said that the councils 21 conditions imposed on the club are "full of holes": "Already the club's owners have circumvented the ban on advertising nude table dancing outside the club by advertising instead a hundred yards away in London Road".

Vincent Cable told the audience that "they should take heart from the campaign of residents in Hampton who managed to persuade the council to reverse a licensing approval and to get the Venue night club closed by mobilising hard evidence and police support."