Campaigners win permission for challenge to sexual entertainment licensing policy

A campaign group has won permission to take Sheffield City Council’s sexual entertainment licensing policy to judicial review.

Not Buying It crowdfunded the legal action against a policy which it said

places no limit on the number of strip clubs in the city and breaches the public sector equality duty.

A costs capping order was put in place for the preliminary hearing due on 25 June.

In a statement, the group said: “We believe the council have not considered the impact on women in wider society and the vicinity in particular.

“To date they appear to have stated that they do not need to consider the equality impact on wider society and have ignored many representations by women and other protected groups that they feel unsafe in the vicinity of their current licensed strip club.”

It said Sheffield had argued that if it did not license strip clubs the industry would ‘go underground’ - and be unregulated.

“This case is not just about Sheffield - it has wide ranging implications for all councils and their licensing of the sex industry,” the group said.

“We believe very few properly understand, let alone consider, the legally binding public sector equality duty, which is particularly high when considering the organised sex industry of course, and are often cowed by the powerful strip industry into granting licenses for fear of costly court cases.”

Law firm DPG, which represented the anonymous claimant who the campaigners are supporting, said: “A judge has now ruled that she has an arguable case the council acted unlawfully in not looking at the negative impact on women properly when deciding on the new policy, and that they ignored important evidence presented by local people, including our client.”

The crowdfunding was started in February to raise the amount needed for initial legal costs.

Sheffield’s policy was adopted last November after a report to the licensing committee said it showed “the council’s commitment to protect the safety of patrons, staff and performers and to ensure high management standards”.

The council did not respond to a request for comment