Licensing Act has failed local residents

The Government's Licensing Act of 2003 has failed to strike the right balance between commercial interests and the needs of local communities - Margot James writes a letter to the press.

Dear Sir

I would like to add my support to calls made by the Labour MP for Stourbridge for licensing laws to give greater powers to Local Authorities over the conduct and siting of Lap Dancing Clubs. As long as there is no criminality involved or caused by these clubs then they should be allowed in a free country. But to argue, as the government did when it liberalised the licensing laws in 2003, that lap dancing and strip clubs should be treated as any other bar or café is absurd. The far reaching changes to licensing, introduced by the government in 2003, removed moral grounds and other grounds from the basis on which residents and other interested parties could object to a license application. As with so many other pieces of legislation passed by this government the effect has not been that which was promised. The Licensing Act of 2003 enabled 24 hour licensing as well as a free for all for the sex industry. Although it was billed at the time as providing residents with supposedly greater powers to object, the reality has been fewer cases of residents bringing action to bear on the licensed trade than was the case before the act was passed. We are all aware of the results in Stourbridge. A proliferation of bars and clubs in the High Street which the police and the Local Council now have under control but at a huge cost in terms of police resources (try calling the police for an incident outside of Stourbridge High Street on a Friday or Saturday night and you will know what I mean about the cost of policing all these licensed premises...) And now another application to open a Lap Dancing Club in the town centre. The government has singularly failed to strike the right balance between commercial interests and the needs of local communities in this and so many other areas. It now looks like playing catch up with its own legislation, but not until after the harm has been done.

Yours sincerely

Margot James