Thursday, September 18, 2008

White Hart Lap Dancing Saga Continues

Kenneth Linwood, the landlord of the White Hart in New Cross, has lodged a legal appeal against Lewisham Council’s decision not to grant a licence for striptease, lap and pole dancing at the pub. The first hearing for the appeal will come before the Magistrates Court on 15th October 2008.

It seems that the 'for sale' sign outside the pub has been there for a while (details here), rather than being prompted by recent events as I suggested earlier.

I think it's a shame that Ken has gone into this bunker mentality - it would have been better if he'd accepted that it was a mistake to close the pub and open a strip joint instead. There was overwhelming local opposition to his plans and he really is digging himself into a hole by appealing - because the fact is he needs people to come into his pub and he is making himself and therefore the pub increasingly unpopular.

Having said that, opponents of the plans will need to get their act together, as Magistrates Courts can and do overrule licensing decisions made by Councils.

See previous posts for the background to this row.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was there overwhelming objection? Please try to be non-partisan here...

. said...

Well one letter in favour to the Licensing Committee, 140 against. I think that would be overwhelming by anybody's definition.

Anonymous said...

The nature of such objections though is that you'll always get a percieved bias towards the 'nays' as they tend to have stronger feelings than the 'yays' or even the 'i dont give a tosses' - who may well outnumber them. The council, and owner, will factor this into their decision. You have to look at this objectively or otherwise nothing would ever get built or changed - BANANA rule (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone!) - or worse, a lot of things would be horribly bent towards the wants of limp-wristed subcultures.

Anonymous said...

Here we go... 'a lot of things would be horribly bent towards the wants of limp-wristed subcultures'. hmmm as opposed to what? 'quick one off the wrist blokes paying to watch strippers sub cultures'. By the way, the council have already made a decision to reject the application - it is this which the landlord had decided to appeal against.

Anonymous said...

Any news on the appeal and what residents can do to object...?

Anonymous said...

If he was more like this, they'd come flocking http://www.thepublandlord.com/ - he's got the voice already, just needs to work on the humour angle!

Ezzye said...

I’m so bored of the ‘stripping is empowering’ line. I’ve worked in strip bars: They only exist to pander to male sexual insecurities and they are rancid, smelly places which smell worse than ever since the smoking ban. The nature of the job tends to turn even the sweetest girl ultra competitive and bitchy, and it’s hardly a career, with new improved models elbowing their way onto the stage all the time.

See
http://www.deathtoglamour.com/cat/3-blogs/articles/388-the-london-columnist-‘erotic-dancer’-nico-is-sadly-mistaken

Anonymous said...

There's a public meeting about this tomorrow: http://www.thehill.org.uk/eventdetails.asp?eventid=432&back=-2