New rules to regulate lap dancing clubs and sex shops in Derbyshire approved

Members of North East Derbyshire District Council debated the draft Sex Establishment Policy in a meeting last night, January 31, following a 13-week consultation with members of the public, in which concerns were raised over the welfare of strippers and the availability of ‘suitable customer car parking’.

While there are no known sex establishments in the district currently, the legislation allows the authority to regulate and give the public the opportunity to have their say on any proposed venues in the future.

Addressing full council, leader Councillor Alex Dale said: “As far as can be achieved the views of respondents have been taken into account in the revised draft that’s before us today.

“It’s noted that there is strong opposition to any establishments being set up within the district but we do need this policy in place in order to be able to regulate them should they arise.”

He described the policy as ‘straight forward’, remarking: “Excuse the pun, but there’s nothing sexy at all about this policy.”

However Councillor Ross Shipman raised concerns about the document, stating: “I get the impression it’s been created to stop these sorts of establishments coming to the district because if you look at the sorts of places where they’re saying they’re not allowed the only place I’ve come to realise we can actually have one is in the middle of a forest somewhere.”

He added that in doing so the council was ‘shooting itself in the foot’ as it could leave itself open to challenges in the future.

Coun Shipman called for amendments to the policy to say security staff should always be ‘five seconds away’ from people and there should be single unisex toilet cubicles, however fellow members disagreed that the changes were necessary at that stage.

Councillor Tracy Reader, who was a member of the licensing committee that helped draft the policy, stated: “I felt that we really did take account of all the information that we had to hand at the time.”

She added: “All those questions were asked at committee.”

Coun Dale said there had been ample opportunity to make amendments to the policy while it was being drafted, but added that there would be the chance to review it in the future.

He commented: “The policy doesn’t restrict either numerically or by location the number of any sex establishments.

“On a personal basis I would say I don’t particularly feel that there are any appropriate locations.”

Members approved the Sex Establishment Policy without making any amendments.