We want to add our voice to that of many others in this area who object to the granting of a licence to Vimac Leisure for a lapdance club in North Road, Durham City, in spite of police objections.
This club will harm the welfare of vulnerable people, particularly young people who look to the city for their recreation.
Evidence from other places points to increased social problems where these clubs are established.
What kind of city do we want for the rising generation?

There has been debate in the news media about lap and table-top dancing clubs. The people of Durham have rallied behind the MP, Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods, in supporting the appeal against the Loft table-top dancing licence.
We care about Durham City and its World Heritage Site of Norman Cathedral and Castle and believe that all who have made our city a great place to live will be betrayed by the introduction of a strip club. It will not enhance the quality of life for all, and will not provide family-friendly entertainment. In contrast, the opening of the new swimming pool will be a welcome addition to facilities in the city for the benefit of all its people. The Loft club, masquerading as ‘a gentleman’s club’, is nothing but sham entertainment and will benefit no one.

I had not realised up until I read the various offerings of Kirsty Thomas that attendance at the lap dance club was compulsary and that there were people employed by the club to drag children in their way to lessons.

As I understand it visitors to our World Heritage sites are also going to be lead at gun point to watch the goings on there.

I do not know what to expect next perhaps televisions with no off buttons so that we are all forced to watch Hot Babes Channel 24-7.

In a free society the market would decide if there was a need and if not it would close but with compulsary attendance it will be difficult to tell if the need is there or not!


What is the world coming to?

This should never have been allowed in the first place. It's a cheap plan by the owners (who I know and can confirm are chauvinists) to try and bring back business after numbers flagged following the opening of Walkergate.
It will make vulnerable members of the city feel like they cannot walk up the street at night - this is particularly resonant because the street is the easiest route from town to student houses in the Viaduct area.
I can't imagine this will do anything to improve the quality of the area, and I honestly think that it will also alienate the student customers of the club.
It is simply objectification of women, and I truly worry that this will have a direct impact on people's attitudes both in Durham, and about Durham.
The licence should be revoked.

This has nothing to do with being a free society or 'letting the market decide'. If you believe that, then why bother even having a council at all, if it has no power to instill some self-worth into the community and preserve the beautiful city that forms our home. North Road is already the single greatest shame of Durham, with rubbish on the road, drunk people yelling out obscenities, and young chavers hassling old passers-by for cigarettes. I am a young female postgraduate student, and when I walk up it each evening to get home, I do not know whether to fear for my life or simply die of embarressment for what Durham has become. It is time to clean up North Road, not degrade it further by allowing a ridiculous and disgusting strip club! Shame on the Council and shame on the Loft!

In view of the emerging meetings and court appeal (ref the licensing application for the Vimac Leisure project in North Road), I am appalled at the degree of apathy evident within the local community.
Durham City has a fine and respected history of tradition and culture, and must be maintained, in keeping with the status of a World Heritage site, and the high degree of tourism which the city attracts.
Should such a project come to this city, it would tarnish the world-renowned reputation of Durham, and with it the local council chamber members, responsible for issuing the aforementioned licence.
I urge the decent citizens of this city and its electorate, whose votes are responsible for the present sitting members of the city council, to rise up and reject the need for this type of venture.
It neither enhances Durham’s present cultural amenities, nor is it appropriate for preserving the tradititional recreational heritage, and future of the city.

Sir, – It is with some dismay that I have heard of the plan to open a strip club on North Road in Durham.
I am a clinical psychologist working for the NHS at the County Hospital in North Road. I help people with sometimes crippling levels of mental ill-health and it is clear to me that sexual abuse, rapes, bullying, assaults, drug abuse, alcoholism, and the break up of relationships, contribute enormously to the levels of mental ill health in Durham.
The opening of a strip club in Durham will undoubtedly provide employment for the ladies who shed their clothes for others’ entertainment.
Perhaps some of them will as a direct result become independent of State benefits and even become taxpayers. The Chancellor might be very pleased about that. But the health (including mental health) and safety risks associated with this kind of industry could run up much bigger hidden bills which the club proprietors will not be called on to pay.
For these bills, the chancellor (and this, of course, means you and me) will have to pick up the bill through the health services.
I think we all need to ask ourselves:
- Is there a risk, however small, that the opening of this club could increase the levels of mental illness, increase the levels of break-up in relationships, or the level of sexual abuse in Durham and the North-East? And is there a risk that children could find themselves affected by any of these?
- Does the opening of this club represent a boost to the sex industry – including prostitution in Durham?
- If there is a risk of an increase in prostitution, could there also be an increase in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV-AIDS) through an increase in promiscuity in Durham and the North East?
I believe these questions are serious ones which hit at the heart of our society’s fabric in Durham. If any of the above questions can be answered in the affirmative (and, based on my experience of working in mental health in North Road, I believe they all can be), then the opening of this club should be resisted.

Sir, - I am very grateful to the Rev W Attwood, in last week's Durham Times; for speaking out against the proposed "Loft" lap-dancing club in Durham City.
I would like to encourage all, who are concerned about the effects of such a project on the Christian tradition and future of the city, to attend the public meeting at St Nicholas Church on Tuesday, November 6 at 7.30pm.
The "Stop the Loft" Appeal is very grateful for the use of St Nicholas Church for this meeting and, in particular, for the unswerving support of the Rev R F T Murphy.

Oh, for God's sake. It's a strip club, not the end of the world. North road may not be the most pituresque bit of Durham but it's hardly terrifying either. I'm a nineteen year old female student and I've never been worried about going to North road, or evn working there handing out flyers on a Saturday night.
If the club really is as stupid an idea as many of you claim and nobody wants it there then it'll fail financially and you can enjoy gloating. If not, then people who want to go to a stirp club can - it's not illegal and it's not your place to judge.
And as for those who say that this is just a cheap ploy to get business back from the Walkergate complex, well ... yeah. Of course it is! Vimac leisure are running a profit making business, not a community service. North road's being destroyed by Loveshack and the like, and companies are having to do whatever they can to get customers in. Otherwise the street's just going to fall into disuse, and I'm sure that won't result in the clean up you're all so eager to see.

I think it is a real shame to spoil a beautiful place like durham with a smutty dirty idea.What next a brothel?

I live above a similar proposed development in the centre of Leeds. It was only when I was confronted with the idea of such a club 'in my back yard', so to speak, that I really thought about this issue. I can't really object to it in one place but condone it in another. Durham's MP says that these kinds of clubs are appropriate in some places, so I would like to know where she has in mind. She says it's not a moral issue, but I am afraid she is wrong. Public disorder and threats to public safety are never acceptable, whether they are near people's homes, schools etc. or not.

What a great decision to disallow the application for a strip club! And I am aghast at the council's pathetic response, blaming their original decision on poor representations at the original hearing. 50 objections - twice the previous record - should have been enough. And the comment by the magistrates yesterday, where they rejected entirely the council's position that the objections were largely moral, was further confirmation that the wrong decision was made at the original hearing.
What does it take to give Ann and Desmond Evans, and Kirsty Thomas, between them the organisers of the appeal to the magistrates court, the freedom of the city - they certainly deserve it!

Lisa wrote:
Oh, for God\\\'s sake. It\\\'s a strip club, not the end of the world. North road may not be the most pituresque bit of Durham but it\\\'s hardly terrifying either. I\\\'m a nineteen year old female student and I\\\'ve never been worried about going to North road, or evn working there handing out flyers on a Saturday night. If the club really is as stupid an idea as many of you claim and nobody wants it there then it\\\'ll fail financially and you can enjoy gloating. If not, then people who want to go to a stirp club can - it\\\'s not illegal and it\\\'s not your place to judge. And as for those who say that this is just a cheap ploy to get business back from the Walkergate complex, well ... yeah. Of course it is! Vimac leisure are running a profit making business, not a community service. North road\\\'s being destroyed by Loveshack and the like, and companies are having to do whatever they can to get customers in. Otherwise the street\\\'s just going to fall into disuse, and I\\\'m sure that won\\\'t result in the clean up you\\\'re all so eager to see.

So it's wrong for other people to judge, but not for you to judge them? Get a life!

Not appropriate in Durham City...

Public disorder and mess in Durham is beyond a joke.

We are trying to attract tourists, and our own residents to the centre.

High parking fees, disgusting messy streets, excessive drinking is spoiling our city centre.

People just go to other places (Metrocentre) to avoid the expense and the mess.

If the council and local MP's need this form of entertainment then go to another town or city!

Bigots 1

Perverts 0

Following letter in 28/12/07 Durham Times re the loft

michelle cornell wrote:
I think it is a real shame to spoil a beautiful place like durham with a smutty dirty idea.What next a brothel?

It's rather naive to suggest a brothel will naturally evolve out of a strip club. The 'broken window' theory (which states that if a street is full of graffiti, etc., it will lead to a lowering of expectations and eventually crime) is just social theorising by middle-aged, middle-class prudes who are terrified of anything that doesn't fit with their narrow vision of a clean, normalised society. And it's ridiculous to suggest that Durham's natural beauty changes the 'moral character' of its residents. We're not better just because the city's pretty.