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Islington is the latest London council to embark on a 'puritan drive' by banning lap dancing clubs. The borough has four sex shops, three adult cinemas and five lap dancing clubs and wants to bar any more clubs offering "sex encounters". The local authorities insist the ban is not on moral grounds but to stop lap dancing or pole dancing clubs opening near schools and residential areas. Paul Smith, executive member for environment on Labour-run Islington council, said: "We're don't want endless sleaze swamping our communities. We're saying we think there are enough sex encounter' venues in Islington, we don't need any more and we're going to be tougher in regulating those already here." Haringey is also proposing a ban on betting shops, hoping to prevent another 'Little Vegas' on Green Lanes appearing. Since April, clubs have been classed as sex establishments and residents can oppose venues for being "inappropriate" to the area and councils have the power to business open close to "sensitive areas". Peter Stringfellow, owner of the Soho pole dancing club, today said councils had no business policing public morals and accused Labour-run councils of running a "crusade". Chris Knight, a spokesman for the Lap Dancing Association, told the BBC that that the change in legislation will see clubs it financially. "The licences range in cost from £4,000 to £30,000 depending on the council. So it is an extra cost as well, and it has to be renewed annually," Knight added. Now in two North London boroughs it may mean they are run out of town all together. Existing clubs have 12 months to apply for a licence or face closure and many may not be renewed. The industry is worth £2.1bn a year. There are an estimated 300 clubs nationwide, many of them in London. Stringfellow added that he would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights if his licences - which he refers to as his "private property" - were not renewed by his local London authority. "That gives me an open and shut case in a European court but I don't anticipate any problems with Westminster," he said In Haringey a 12-week public consultation ends on December 15 and if approved, will come into effect in January 2011.
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