Open letter against a nil-cap on SEVs
Dear Bristol City Council,
On the 8th of March 2021 Bristol City Council’s licensing committee held a meeting to debate the future of the city’s Sexual Entertainment Venues (SEVs) otherwise known as strip clubs. At this meeting, Bristol’s licensing committee voted in favour of putting a proposed nil-cap policy to a 12-week public consultation. A nil-cap would make the two remaining clubs unable to renew their licence, effectively closing them permanently once their current licences expire.
The two strip clubs currently licensed in Bristol are Urban Tiger and Central Chambers. These are both family-owned businesses and female run, both are located in central Bristol. They are in good standing with Avon and Somerset Police, Bristol Nightlife and The Bristol Association of Restaurants, Bars and Independent Establishments (BARBIE).
These venues employ approximately 100 workers, including performers, hospitality staff, security and cleaners as well as providing a host of other benefits to the business community, suppliers and the wider local night-time economy. Most of those working at these venues have been out of work for over a year due to COVID. Some of them have been unable to access any financial support.
The women who chose to work in those establishments have done so for a multitude of reasons. Financial stability and flexible work shifts are the main ones, but also they do so to support themselves through education, to support their families, to work around childcare, to care for disabled family members, and many more including that they like the job. Closing these establishments would remove a key source of income for them, pushing the majority of them into either unemployment, precarious employment or underground work which would directly impact their safety.
In many cities in which nil-caps have been introduced, strip clubs have either gone underground, or dancers have resorted to working at private parties. In both cases, the performers face a huge lack of safety and an increase in violence. Pushing the industry underground does not decrease demand and removes the option of a safe working environment for these workers.
The current SEV license policy was introduced in Bristol in 2011. Licences are renewed annually, set out strict CCTV and security regulations, and are in addition to the other licences and health and safety requirements necessary to run a hospitality and live entertainment venue. There is a very extensive set of conditions that SEVs must adhere to in order to retain their licenses including a strict no-contact rule between dancers and customers, no dancing in enclosed areas, CCTV coverage of the venue, no outward marketing including ensuring no leaflets or posters, billboards or adverts are visible from outside the venue, no personal contact details to be shared between customer and performer, and more... CCTV is reviewed regularly by both police and members of the council and visits are frequently made to ensure the policy is being adhered to.
There have been no license breeches by the two currently operating clubs.
All of the dancers undergo identity checks when starting employment to ensure they have the right to work in the UK and have no criminal record. Contrary to the myth that anti strip club campaigners try to spread, there is no evidence that any of the workers are "pimped out" or victims of human trafficking. All of the workers are consenting adults.
A significant number of the dancers are members of the United Sex Workers (USW) branch of the United Voices of the World union and are members of Equity. This allows them to organise and ensure fair working conditions and rights which they would be unable to do should their work be pushed underground. USW has also worked with dancers to create a progressive SEV policy in Camden; there is an opportunity for Bristol to follow in their footsteps and create policy that centres the experiences and rights of the workers instead of giving credence to a puritanical and misogynistic minority who blame women, in particular sex workers, for the violence of men and the hyper-sexualisation of women in mainstream culture.
In 2019, Bristol City Council (BCC) spent thousands of pounds on a public consultation which showed that approximately 66% of Bristol residents were happy with the current number of SEVs and did not object to them. Why would the council, two and half years later, spend thousands again on another similar public consultation? It seems BCC is not going to accept any other answer from its residents than the one it wants to receive and does not respect their already-stated will.
One of the main arguments presented to argue for the nil-cap is that SEVs increase the rate of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in its surrounding areas. This is simply not true. Avon and Somerset Police’s Cumulative Impact Assessment showed that from 2018-2020 neither venues were a source of concern for sexual assault in or around their premises. One venue was not even mentioned.
If the aim of BCC is to tackle VAWG in the city centre, it is strange that a club such as Pryzm - which has a sexual assault rate five times higher than Central Chambers and Urban Tiger combined - is under no threat of closure.
Statistics have also been collected from Swansea, Chester and Exeter; cities in which nil-caps have been introduced in the last few years. The closure of SEVs in those cities have shown to have had absolutely no impact whatsoever on reducing VAWG, the rates of sexual assault actually increased in the years following the nil-caps. There was a similar trend with Jack of Diamonds, a strip club in Old Market that lost its license in 2017. Freedom of Information data shows that violent crimes and sexual assault has risen despite it no longer being an SEV.
On multiple occasions, councillors mentioned the existence of documents which supposedly prove that the presence of SEVs has a negative impact on their surrounding area. The Bristol Sex Workers Collective (BSWC) reached out to the council on a number of occasions to ask for access to this "evidence", but was only ever met by silence. Official requests were also turned down for questionable reasons.
The current SEV policy in Bristol clearly states that moral judgments have absolutely no place when making decisions on the licensing of the establishments. As demonstrated, figures show that SEVs do not have any negative impact on crime, are safe working environments and have better regulation in place than most regular venues. We believe that shutting those places down would therefore be discriminatory, unlawful and infringe the Equality Act by taking away women's bodily autonomy and choices. And we are not alone: the BSWC started a petition against the closure of SEVs and has already gathered over 7,000 signatures so far.
We demand that Bristol City Council respects the law, democracy and honours workers' rights by voting against the proposed nil-cap.
Signatories:
Bristol Sex Workers Collective
Megan Prescott, influencer
Dr Katie Cruz, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Bristol
Dr Egle Cesnulyte, Lecturer in Politics/International development, deputy director of the Gender Research Centre, University of Bristol
Dr. Anastacia Ryan - founder Umbrella Lane, Sex Worker Wellbeing Project , Scotland
Prerna Menon - Coordinator Umbrella Lane, Sex Worker Wellbeing Project, Scotland
Berlin Strippers Collective
English Collective of Prostitutes
Prof Jutta Weldes, University of Bristol
Dr Jessica Paddock, University of Bristol
Dr Chris Rossdale, University of Bristol
Prof Teela Sanders, University of Leicester
Dr Rosie Nelson, University of Bristol
Dr Polly Galis, University of Bristol
Dr Jessica Simpson, London School of Economics
Paul W Fleming, General Secretary, Equity
Simon Curtis, National and Regional Official - Wales and South West England, Equity
National SEV Coalition
Momentum Bristol
Adam Brittain, Operations Director of BARBI
Dr Carolina Are, researcher, blogger and activist at bloggeronpole.com
United Sex Workers
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), Bristol branch
Hannah Nicholls, Pink Kitten Dance School
Lily Fitzgibbons, Green Councillor for Bishopston and Ashley Down
Bristol Young Greens
All Black Lives UK
East London Strippers Collective CIC
Cleo Lake, activist and former Lord Mayor
Bristol Labour Against Transphobia
Cllr Ani Stafford-Townsend
The Radical Resilience Project
Intersectional Feminist Society, University of Bristol
Kerry Bailes, Labour Councillor for Hartcliffe & Withywood and Labour Group Women's officer
Laila McKenzie/Lady of the House
Dr Julia Laite, Birkbeck University, Director of Raphael Samuel History Centre, Convenor in Public Histories and Gender and Sexuality
Kaz Self, Trans Pride SW
Dr Emily Kenway, author of "The Truth about Modern Slavery", editor of Beyond Trafficking and Slavery
Dr Gemma Ahearne, Lecturer in Criminology, University of Liverpool
Bristol Pride
Decrim Now
Sex Work Advocacy and Resistance Movement (SWARM)
Labour4decrim
Women's Strike
Dr Kate Hardy, University of Leeds
Dr Ana Baeza Ruiz, University of Bristol
Chloe Dominique PhD Anthropology, UCL
COYOTE RI
Amy Merron, Ulster University Pro-Choice Society
Red Umbrella Front
Adeline Berry, Research fellow, University of Huddersfield
Dr Alon Lischinsky, Oxford Brookes University
Disa TS, Red Umbrella Sweden
Under 18 Young Greens
Dr Chrys Papaioannou
Matt Valentine-Chase, Therapist and previous Research Assistant, Beyond the Gaze
Dr Simon Martin, Loughborough University
Dr Alon Lischinsky, Oxford Brookes University
Dr Chloe Gott, author of “Experience, Identity & Epistemic Injustice within Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries”
Dr Rachel Colosi, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Lincoln
Dr Nick Cowen, University of Lincoln
Dr Anastacia Elle Ryan, University of Glasgow
Prof. Belinda Brooks-Gordon. Birkbeck, University of London
Daisy Carter, Young Labour National Committee
Zach Leggett, University of Sunderland
Cllr Andrew Varney, Liberal Democrat Councillor Brislington West, Deputy Lord Mayor of Bristol
Dr Ella Cockbain, Associate Professor in Security and Crime Science, UCL
Cybertease
Jonathan Fanning, University of York UCU VP (PC)
Not On My Campus UK
Katie Podszus, Lancaster University
Bristol Amnesty International Group