Town lap dancing club backed
Tuesday 13th October 2009, 10:30AM BST.
A Shropshire restaurant has been given permission to operate as a lap dancing club after a behind closed doors decision by licensing bosses.
Greek restaurant Stelgreco, in Castle Foregate, Shrewsbury, has been granted permission for a change of use to a restaurant, wine bar and private members’ nightclub.
And it has emerged that the restaurant received approval from Shropshire Council last month for a new premises licence which also allows it to stage occasional lap dances.
Carol Foster, licensing team leader for the Central area at Shropshire Council, said that the application had initially raised concerns from West Mercia Police.
But she said that after applicant Stelios Kakkindiris agreed to a number of strict conditions, officers used delegated powers to approve the licence without the need for a committee to decide.
Mr Kakkindiris was in London and unavailable for comment today.
Mrs Foster said the new licence also allows for the sale of alcohol, provision of hot food, regulated entertainment, live and recorded music, plays and films.
Licensable activities will be able to take place between 11am and 4am Monday to Saturday, with people off the premises by 5am.
The private members’ club will be known as Eden Club Ltd and will have up to 250 members. The changes to the restaurant could create up to 16 jobs.
Mrs Foster said: “The application has gone through and it’s got a number of conditions relating to how they are going to comply with the four licensing objectives, one of which is the membership cards issued in line with private members’ clubs.
“The application does give the management the right to put on limited lap dancing. No persons under 18 will be allowed into the premises on those occasions. It’s been heavily conditioned.”
Andrew Wagner, Shrewsbury Town councillor, today said it was a “worrying” development.
A planning statement for Eden Club Ltd says: “The members-only nightclub in the evenings will be restricted to persons over the age of 25 who will be vetted prior to having their memberships approved.”
By Russell Roberts
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This facility is a boon for Shrewsbury although I hope the owners of the restaurant will be offering creche facilities so that parents can enjoy the adult entertainment without having to worry about their children.
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Let me guess, the new club is going to fittingly hold on to it’s ‘Greekness’ and be called Aphrodite’s?
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What on Earth is an ‘occasional lapdance’? Surely it either is or it isn’t a lapdancing club.
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what makes me laugh is that for some reason shrewsbury is not allowed a primark, but a lap dancing bar has been given the go ahead.please explain!!
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Ace!
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@Colin, I guess if one went for a lapdance on the odd special occassions then that would be classed as the “occasional lapdance”!
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The difference between Primark and this Lap Dancing Club is that Primark exploits foreign women workers, whereas this Lap Dancing Club will……hmmmmmmm? s smith may have a point here?
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S Smith, what a daft comment! “Not allowed” a Primark?! Why don’t you ask Primark bosses why they’re not interested in opening a store here, rather than suggesting it’s the local licensing committee that made such a decision?
I don’t see the issue to be honest, lots of towns have lapdancing clubs and it’s not the first time someone has asked for permission to open one here. It’s just the first time permission has been granted.
Come on, Shrewsbury has three brothels in various parts of town, is a lap dancing club really going to lower the tone of the place any more?!
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Colin, I was equally perplexed at ‘occasional lapdance’.
I have an occasional table. It looks great until you take the cloth off, but then realise its a piece of cheap and trashy chip-board, crudely put together.
I assume that the use of ‘occasional lapdance’ was a parody of ‘occasional table’, as when the cloth comes off, you realise what a waste of money it is.
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Lucy W – Please explain the difference between lapdancers and the chippondales? Equality must exist in the workplace.
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a proportion of people in Kingsland will be spitting out their foie gras when they read the paper tonight!
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As for equality, Y Mab raises a valid point. What about age-ism? I mean, will women of more advanced years be invited for an audition if they apply for a job?
How courageous of Y Mab to make a stand against this blatent inequality!
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cous cous accompanied by a bit of old Mutton and a couple of flat pitta`s.
Think i will go for an Indian.
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Well they can dance on my lap anytime …
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Lucy W – Your not thinking about applying for a job are you?
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so “lap dancing club backed”, I want to know who will be fronting it!
@ed and monkey: if you so excited about seeing young ladies in skimpy clothes then just hang around Telford shopping centre during the school holidays.
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Y Mab, well I was thinking about it until I took a closer look at the picture at the top of this thread and realised that they get paid with Monoply money.
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hellish idea!!!!!!
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There may be the odd ex councillor who needs something new to get their teeth into. :0
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I’ve studied the picture that accompanies this story (for research purposes only) and maybe I’m mistaken and maybe it’s just down to the picture quality…but is it actually showing the pins of a one of the Shropshire Star’s male reporters ?
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Damn, Nistagmus, you’ve found us out again
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Chris, you mention 3 brothels in our county town ?
Oh my God, shock, horror, do our councillors know about this ? I thought the scandal of 13 Frankwell was the last of such beastliness.
I am mortified that such a practice is able to continue in the town, are the town centre residents association aware of this naughtiness?
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Yes, this just about clinches it, the town I used to love is becoming more like Brewer Street,Wardour Street and all the other sleazy lanes, alleys and dens of iniquity in London, W1. No doubt that once up and running, places like this will degenerate into a second Amsterdam where my wife and I had the nausiating experience of being confronted by barely adult lap dancers performing in joints at 10oclock in the morning.
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I can’t wait. will be taking part in a bit of hoo ra henry down there i reckon.
Best thing Shrewsbury has ever had, i bet you all a £10 you will spot a local council member in there….
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Stuart – You go to Amsterdam and are surprised by what you confronted with?
Shock Horror!!!
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Stuart said “I had the nausiating experience of being confronted by barely adult lap dancers performing in joints at 10oclock in the morning.”
Well you should have gone to bed at 10pm with a mug of coco and a good book!
I went to Amsterdam and didn’t see any of the red light district because I avoided it.
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I hope I get the right night and don’t mix up restaurant night for lap dance night. It would be disastrous if my meat and two veg were tucked into?
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Simon Jeavons said: a proportion of people in Kingsland will be spitting out their foie gras when they read the paper tonight!
I live in Kingsland and i’ll be opening the champagne – Dom Perignon 53 naturally…
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chris – i will happily speak to the right people about having a primark in town, but i think you will find that it is the choice of the snobs on the council for us not to have a primark, yet they will happily open a lap dancing bar! i would also like to point out that i have absolutely no problem with this type of entertainment and i look forward to sharing a dance with your goodself….
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I moved to Shrewsbury from Telford to get away from the increasing amount of scum in the area and now this in Shrewsbury!
Can someone give me an example of a nice city where a lap dancing club exists? All I can think of is dirty area of Birmingham and the cheap and nasty area of Newcastle Upon Tyne.
I don’t recall visiting a nice place like Shrewsbury and seeing a pleasent exterior’d Lap Dancing club next to nice wine bars and resturants.
And unlike the brothels, this will be in the public view and publicised locally (not that I agree with brothels either).
I’m sure this will only result in trouble or closure of the premises.
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… and never mind Primark, why can’t the council campaign for a Zara!
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Lucy W, I first went to Amsterdam in 1958, then an architecturally georgeous, picturesque and genteel city. My wife was reading the Ann Frank book and wished to see her background etc. We stayed in a Hotel in Dam Square, reputedly the “upmarket” end of the city. We didn’t have to go looking for sleaze and filth, it hits one almost on every street. The city is one big drug infested sleaze ball. Many lap dancing joints are on the main street leading to the Railway Station, this is their equivalent of Shoplatch and Pride Hill, they even dance on the pavements in front of one. If you missed the red light district then you also missed some of the beautiful (but ruined by sleaze)areas and how you avoided them, I don’t know, you must have restricted your walking to a 25 square yard patch.
Lap dancing clubs are the start of filth and sleaze taking over big time. Many towns now get around the brothel problem by restricting the number of “workers ” on the premises to just one girl, whereas a brothel – to commit an offence requires two. It is one thing to have sleaze behind closed doors, it is quite another to license it and allow public (albeit members)entrance into clubs who practice it. A sorry day for Shrewsbury.
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Judging by the problems venues have with music licences in this town I’m guessing the lap dancers will be grinding about to a hushed room…
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Why the fuss over Primark ?
It’s just a shop that sells clothing, why does the name come up every time there is a new development in town ? Primark chose not to come here, so what, we have H&M opening in November, does that make anyone feel better ?
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I agree with you Andy. It’s a complete joke. The Council have actually gone against their regeneration document called ‘Shrewsbury Northern Corridor Regeneration Framework’ March 2007. I am led to believe that when the council changed this document was carried over and is still LIVE! They refer to Castle Foregate as the Castle Foregate Urban Village. The document picks up on and says it will improve: negative perceptions and dark, intimidating spaces under the railway viaduct bridges and actually says dark and uninviting underpass, creating an extremely negative impression. The aim of the Regeneration Framework was to provide facilities that would be to the benefit of all users in the area, aims to reduce overall traffic passing through the area, blah blah. Or total crap as it now seems to be.
The document also goes on to say that the Castle Foregate Urban Village would promote a mixed use neighbourhood, combining a variety of different residential types and tenures, with light workspace and small scale commercial space aimed at environmental technology and the creative media sectors, along with other commercial and community uses that are compatible with a predominantly residential environment. No one can deny that this particular part of Castle Foregate is now mainly residential.
I am open minded and I have nothing against these kind of establishments but the siting I disagree with – you are telling me the owner couldn’t sell the place and get a unit on the outskirts of town? Yeah right. The club will be on a main route in to the town and is opposite the train station so what a great first impression that gives. As for creating jobs, 16 jobs is neither here nor there.
This planning application does not ring true. Neighbours weren’t consulted, the planning application certainly didn’t mention the ‘films’ it was going to be showing and other things that have come to light, decision made under delegated powers behind closed doors, the council ignoring a live document which now throws in to question their competency and commitment to Shrewsbury town centre. Myself and a lot of other town centre residents hope that this gets taken to appeal and the truth is uncovered.
Well done to the new council or should I say old under a new name. You haven’t changed a bit!
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Stuart, I was not there in 1958, my Granddad may have been though.
Sorry to hear that your ‘Anne Frank experience’ was spoilt by some promiscuity. Some attractive girls dancing in the street must have really marred you trip – what did you want, the Gestapo goose-stepping up and down the street?
Nevertheless I am most impressed that your wife was reading the Dutch version in 1958, as the English translation wasn’t published until 1952!!! ;o)
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Well it seems like a great idea to me. I dont see how it will make anyone think any less of Shrewsbury. It just goes to show how much of a country town we are. A town this size, its suprising its taken us this long to get one.
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Lucy, sorry if I misled you, put it down to mature moments. I was in Amsterdam in 1958 whilst on leave from the army at NATO HQ. I next went 2 years ago with my wife re the Ann Frank experience, the first time I went, a beautiful city, the last time, the sleaze bowl of the world.
Sleaze starts off with licensed lap dancing,it then goes from there by creeping inertia of those who’se job it is to maintain decent standards to what can now be found in the West End of London. It is arguable as to which is worst, Amsterdam or the area of the West End known as Soho. I give Shrewsbury a few months after this place opens before another afront to decency want to open up. It is like a creeping disease.
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Andy – “Can someone give me an example of a nice city where a lap dancing club exists?”
Chester? Norwich? Bath? (so I’m told).
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I am intrigued by the “careful vetting” procedure for membership. What qualities do you need to offer to be able to stick a twenty pound note in a thong??? We have just moved here from Brighton (where we have sauciness untethered)and there the debates were raging on full-nudity waitresses!!
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what a shambles!
Once the novelty wears off, I’m sure people will move on elsewhere and the club will loose it’s appeal with eventual closure.
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No doubt Sam. Trouble will come with it, so will the complaints and the police won’t be able to patrol the area effectively despite the impression they are giving out. I am surprised the police haven’t made a comment to be honest.
I am intrigued myself Ali as to the ‘careful’ vetting procedure – perhaps everyone will be CRB checked, references taken up and perhaps members will even sign a carefully worded membership agreement stipulating that after just one incident by a patron either inside or outside of the venue and they are barred for life.
It will be interesting to see how patrons will make their way home. Obviously the council have considered the public transport available in the town for this? The train station is not open 24 hours a day and nor is the bus station. It only leaves the one option of patrons waiting outside for taxis which no doubt will be parked on the double yellow lines outside. It all adds to the excitment and intrigue.
I’m logging off to call Jessica Fletcher ;-)
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Lets just close down the whole Town Centre!
At the end of the day if you don’t like it no ones forcing you to go
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Town Centre Resident, bit of an assumption that trouble will come with it?
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I’m guessing “town centre resident” lives quite close to the venue and with his seeming knowledge of town cetre matters I suspect may even be a member of the dreaded town centre residents association ( the group of moaning old biddies hell bent on shuting the whole town down so they can die of old age and boredom in peace).
Exactly for what reason does town cente resident believe that patrons of the club will be noisier, criminal or disorderly than any other town user? How will people get home? – I guess the same way as the people using the buttermarket nightclub just across the road. Just another NIMBY argument!
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Oooohhh! Raw nerve Brimondo???
Wrong on a lot of accounts. I am also not old and I enjoy town life including the nightlife it has to offer.
Unlike some people that just see Shrewsbury town centre as somewhere to buy their jeans, get drunk and throw up on the way home, other people see it deeper than that and do actually care about how the centre is perceived. Pride if you like.
Do you not think people who live in the town centre have children? Do you think they are all 20 something? You would be amazed how many familes do live in the centre of town. I suppose your reply would be move out to us all… well if we did that more of the businesses in the town would fail as unlike the majority of Shrewsbury who pop in to spend money once or twice a week we spend our hard earned cash in the shops you rely on being there when you want them on a daily basis.
Enjoy your pint and I won’t return the insults.
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comparing shrewsbury to amsterdam and a private club to primark….this is pure comedy. What do people think is going to happen? civil unrest perhaps?
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