Strip clubs ‘can be cut to zero’

STRIP clubs do not have the power to stop council chiefs from banning their venues, a court has heard.

Christine O’Neill, KC, who is representing the City of Edinburgh Council, said councillors had the right to set the maximum number of sexual entertainment venues at zero.

Clubs and dancers claim this would breach strippers’ rights, push them into debt and put venues out of business.

But Miss O’Neill told a judicial review at the Court of Session yesterday that the Scottish parliament had also set out in legislation that the number of venues ‘may be zero’. She said that while it is currently set to zero, the number could be revised in future.

The review heard there has not been sufficient explanation for the zero policy. But Miss O’Neill said in individual licensing cases, applicants would have to be told in writing why they had been refused – but this was not such a case.

The review continues.