Strip joints are opening across Brighton and Hove and authorities are powerless to stop them.

A legal loophole means councillors can do little about the spread of exotic entertainment venues. But all that could change as the city council launches a bid for more control over licensing such night spots.

Reporter RACHEL FITCH found out it has support from an unexpected quarter.

Lapdancing club owner Ken McGrath runs two of the most popular saucy venues in the city.

Top Totty in Grand Parade, Brighton, and The Pussycat Club in Church Road, Hove, entertain men looking for something more risqué than the average pub or wine bar offers.

Mr McGrath has applied for a full nudity licence for each club and will discover at a council meeting today whether he has been successful.

Despite this, he believes Brighton and Hove City Council should have greater power to regulate businesses like his. He said loopholes which prevented local authorities being able to stop the spread of strip clubs were absurd.

He said: "The Licensing Act 2003 is fundamentally flawed and could effectively lead to a red light area with strip clubs, prostitution and all the danger and organised crime that comes with that and the council would, quite wrongly, be unable to do anything about it."

Last month, councillors passed a resolution to lobby David Lammy, Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, to extend tighter controls on strip clubs - which currently only apply in London - to the rest of the country.

But officers believe this is unlikely to work and are drawing up plans for a private members Bill, which allows organisations outside Parliament such as councils to gain powers not available under general law.

Current legislation groups nude and ballroom dancing under the same umbrella. It means councillors cannot reject an application purely on the grounds the dancing is exotic.

Councils have to automatically grant licences unless there are objections from the public.

Mr McGrath said it was ridiculous councils could not raise their own concerns about an application in the absence of any by a third party.

He said: "As a resident I want my council to be able to act if a neighbour decides to put up a massive concrete wall which overshadows my garden.

"In the same way that they have authority in planning matters, they should have authority in licensing.

"If they can't regulate strip clubs and have their authority removed, they should not be called local authorities. I think everybody's view would be the same.

"The Government was in something of a rush to pass these licensing laws and it didn't think about the implications properly. The loophole is an oversight but it's a pretty big one.

"Just in the same way they can limit the number of gambling halls or public houses, councils should have a say on this.

"If the council makes a mistake with a licence then people would still have the opportunity of challenging that decision with a higher authority.

We are always able to appeal decisions we believe to be unreasonable.

"Over the last ten years there have been six or seven applications for strip venues and they've been declined for various reasons but they've all had the option of going to court over it."

Last year, an application by Rocco Mana for a strip club in East Street, Brighton, was turned down by the city council's licensing panel following objections from the police and residents.

But the decision was overturned on appeal by magistrates, who ruled police lacked conclusive evidence linking strip clubs with crime.

Since then, a gentleman's club has opened in Western Road, Top Totty and Pussycat have applied for full nudity licences and two other venues in central Brighton are looking to introduce stripping.

Brighton and Hove City Council is looking for powers like those operating in London. It wants to be able to reject applications if it considered the number of strip clubs already in that area was adequate or granting a licence would be inappropriate due to the character of the area.

Mr McGrath said he had been forced to apply for permission for full nudity to keep up with competition.

He said: "We would quite happily and voluntarily surrender nude aspects of our licence if it came to that.

"If the council asked us to give up a nude licence then we would undertake to. It is not something we wanted to go for but were forced to follow others.

"Some things are appropriate in some places and some things aren't.

If you go to Las Vegas or Soho you go there knowing you can expect to find something a bit naughty or sex activity places.

"If you want to go to something like that you can expect to find it but that doesn't mean it should be available everywhere or next to a school or church in a residential area.

"Neighbours should have the right to object to things and the council should have the right to object too."

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