A proposed ban on strip clubs in Bristol has been overwhelmingly rejected by city councillors. Licensing committee members voted by 10-1 to retain the current limit of two sexual entertainment venues (SEVs) in the city centre and one in Old Market.
Councillors agreed with the vast majority of respondents to a 12-week consultation last autumn that the clubs should not be shut down. They were given two options at the meeting on Thursday (May 28) – introduce a “nil cap” effectively prohibiting lap-dancing clubs anywhere in Bristol or keep the existing system.
The decision was greeted with wild cheers by the performers and sex worker campaigners in the public gallery at City Hall’s council chamber. It brings to a close a six-year saga to refresh the local authority’s sex establishment policy and follows several different draft versions, U-turns and rounds of public consultation.
