Strip club scheme causes fresh rage

Members of the council’s regulation committee will discuss the application for a licence during their meeting this Friday.

The club, which would be called “Sin-til-Late,” is hoping to open in Rodney Street on the former site of nightclub Studio 46.

An application was lodged last year and received an immediate objection from Wigan MP Lisa Nandy who said it would “severely undermine” the council’s efforts to reduce anti-social behaviour in the town centre.

Protestors are also concerned the proposed site is just yards away from another strip club, Baby Platinum on King Street.

In its bid to obtain a sexual entertainment venue licence the new club, which is applying for opening hours of 9pm until 6.30am, is also putting in a request to vary condition 30(g) of the Standard Conditions, which will allow a performer to remove her G-string during a performance.

The application is being made by Leigh-based Combination Computing Ltd whose sole director David Plant is also on the board of Mish Mash Brewery. An inspection of the premises was carried out on January 5 when officers were told by Mr Plant that “he was still not 100 per cent certain he would use the premise as a sex entertainment venue”.

In the report, the inspector writes: “At the conclusion of the discussion I formed the opinion that Mr Plant was lacking the basic experience and knowledge that would be necessary for running such an establishment.”

In her letter Ms Nandy, who also opposed a licence being granted to nearby Baby Platinum, wrote: “Prior to lodging this objection I sought advice from officers in Wigan Council’s Licensing Section who clarified that the council’s Sex Establishment Policy rejects the premise of full nudity in sex establishments. Given that the council felt this was important enough to make clear in the Sex Establishment Policy, I do not believe there is any justification for departing from it, whether for economic or other reasons.

“I understand that the decision to grant a variation of the council’s policy on conditions relating to permitted activities in sexual entertainment venues, does not create a precedent and that all applications must be judged on a case by case basis.”

The council has received a total of 16 objections from members of the public. One letter published in the regulation committee agenda stated that the complainant was objecting “on behalf of the women of this borough and of men who also reject the explicit sexualisation and objectification of women.”

The committee will meet this Friday at 9.45am at the Town Hall to discuss the plan.

A CAMPAIGN to ban Wigan lap-dancers from removing their G-strings during saucy routines at the town’s Baby Platinum club in King Street was launched last year by angry church groups.

The protest called on council chiefs to reverse a decision made earlier in the year to grant a licence to the town’s only strip club, Baby Platinum, on King Street. Protestors wanted its licence conditions changed to outlaw the removal of dancers’ underwear during dances, saying the practice was degrading to women.

And the campaign was given added momentum when Rev Stan Higginson told churchgoers at St Michael’s Church in Swinley to back the G-string ban, in the petition backed by 12 Wigan churches.