A strip club called ‘Sins’ has opened in Brixton town centre.  Given the area’s historic (and now declining!) problems with drug dealing, gang-related crime, kerb crawling and domestic violence this is the last thing Brixton needs.  Amazingly it seems the council cannot use licensing or planning powers to close the club so I’m launching a campaign to see if we can mobilise people-power to get this place closed down. 

I don’t want to be moralistic about this.  Consenting adults have the right to do what they want within the law.  But Brixton just isn’t the right place for a strip club.  Crime is falling in Brixton – as it is across Lambeth – thanks to the hard work of the Police and the robust support of our Labour council which has made tackling crime a top priority.  But the kind of crime we see in Brixton is likely to be made worse by the presence of a strip club and the kind of customers it might attract.  I’m told there’s evidence that kerb crawling and violence against women increases in areas where there are strip clubs.  And the links between vice and drugs and gangs is well known.  We’re getting action against all these things in Brixton, we don’t need a strip club making things worse again.

What the club’s promoters have done is exploit a grey area in the planning and licensing laws.  The legislation doesn’t recognise ‘pole dancing’ as an activity that requires consent from the local authority.  Labour councillors have already approached the owners of the venue – as opposed to the people operating the club – to see whether they would support legal action.  The original permission granted to the club was for dancing – it may be that the definition does not extend to ‘pole dancing’ but we need to test the legal case for that.  We have also approached the local police team who are backing Labour’s call for a licensing review. 

We will pursue all legal avenues open to us to stop this unwelcome new development in Brixton.  But what will really help is a show of public opposition to this strip club.  I’m working on this with my colleague Cllr Paul McGlone who represents Ferndale Ward where the club is based.  Please email me if you’d like to support this campaign and I’ll keep you informed about developments.  With so much improvement in recent years let’s make sure Brixton doesn’t slip backwards again!   

A strip club has opened in this building in Brixton town centre