Lap Dancing in Worthing

A whole town will "burn in hell" if it allows lap dancing at a nightclub according to veteran anti-porn nutter Steve Stevens, 89. He said Worthing will be eternally damned if it allows the Liquid Lounge nightclub to put on nude and semi-nude shows.

And the town's brush with Beelzebub could come sooner rather than later, with a committee of politicians due to decide whether to give the go-ahead to the plan later this month.

The pensioner has now started a petition against the club's plans and says he has secured more than 300 signatures on it.

Liquid Lounge, which has run regular club nights at its four room venue for years, wants to put on the lap dancing and stripping shows for members only.

General manager James Lanz said the nights would be tasteful and fully policed by security staff. He said: We are aiming at the Adonis cabaret-style show for ladies and tasteful nude and semi-nude dancers for men. This has worked very well, trouble-free, in many other towns. This will, of course, be run very strictly for members only and for over-18s, or possibly over-21s.

The club has applied to run the lap dancing nights in its ground floor Le Chic room. It would be Worthing's first ever lap dancing club.

Sussex Police officers have said they would only be able to object if it was shown that disorder could result from the lap dancing nights. But licensing officer PC Mike Webb added that the force was not a "moral guardian" of the town.

Worthing Borough Council's licensing committee is due to decide whether to allow the lap dancing at a meeting on March 27.

Worthing's self-appointed moral guardian Steve Stevens forced the council's licensing sub-committee to close its meeting to the public after shouting out from the public gallery. Stevens was escorted from the meeting by two security guards.

The 89-year-old war veteran and nutter submitted a 600 signature petition to the council against plans for erotic dancing at the Liquid Lounge in Chatsworth Road.

The prospect of fully-nude men and women had helped fuel nutters, but the club's general manager James Lanz told the Herald: One of the conditions we have agreed does state that genitalia will be covered at all times.

Sussex Police withdrew its representation to the committee after the club agreed to several conditions.

• No audience participation, and no physical contact between customers and the dancer during or after the performance.
• No person under 18 be allowed on the premises while striptease/lap dancing is taking place, and clear warning notices be displayed at entrances.
• All dancers/performers must be aged at least 18 and legally entitled to work at the club.
• That performances of pole dancing/lap dancing end by 3.30am.

Objections to the application included a letter from Mark Weeden, pastor at The Worthing Tabernacle who ludicrously belittles his fellow man: Married men stirred up in this way are more likely to batter their wives, push them to 'perform' as the strippers did, or to commit adultery. Allowing lap-dancing will mean an increase in prostitution, whether with the dancers themselves, or prostitutes in surrounding areas.

Update: Open

Liquid Lounge opened on 1st July 2008