My government supports the Harringay charter, says Queen

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Permalink Reply by Liz on December 3, 2008 at 22:59

Did anyone else hear mention of legislation to help tighten up the rules around the siting of betting shops. Was I dreaming this? All I can find are references to lap dancing places.

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Permalink Reply by Salvation Army Citadel on March 27, 2009 at 19:28

But the lap dancing connection is very topical - Haringey (and thereby Harringay) is currently faced with an application for lap dancing in a totally inappropriate location, opposite the YMCA, surrounded by schools, within sight of a church in premises once owned personally by William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army - it is hard to think of a more inappropriate location - if this license is granted then après Crou Chend le déluge - there will be a flood of such places all across Haringey - the Lap Dancing Association is a powerful business lobby.
The news on the legislation on this front is good - The main points of the changes are:

- Sex establishments will be brought into line with the restrictions that are placed on sex shops and sex cinemas - which mean they can use the following criteria to assess the application:

“When considering an application for a sex establishment licence the Council may only use the following criteria:

* The suitability of the Applicant
* Whether the person applying is a “front” person for someone else
*The location and situation of the premises in relation to other premises in the area
* Whether the number of sex establisments in that locality is equal to, or exceeds the number which the Council considers appropriate for the area. ”

- Local Authorities must opt in to the rules, and only apply if the Council chose to the apply the restrictions

- The rules are retrospective so all establishments must re-apply. The lap-dancing industry is lobbying against this and we will resist attempts to amend the proposals in this way.

However this from the same government that banned the increasingly popular fox hunting, wrongly handed out billions in the ludicrously complex tax credit scheme, went to war to destroy non-existent wmds, introduced draconian measures against terrorism now used to tackle dog fouling and completely reworked the regulatory system for banks. Hope springs eternal . . . .

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Permalink Reply by Omotn on March 28, 2009 at 8:34

There are references on this page to 2 pieces of legislation, and it takes only a little further research to see what a dog's dinner modern legislation is. (When I was at school Brown-ian motion was something to do with the random and unpredictable movements of molecules, now it seems to be to do with the random and unpredictable movements of government).
The first one Liz refers to is apparently to do with increasing local democracy - but actually its not - one of its points "provide local authorities with tools to work across local boundaries" does exactly the opposite - whatever HoL might determine is a good course of action for some streets in Haringey which run parallel to each other and look a bit like a ladder will go by the board as soon as "regional level" decisions are agreed by - well by what - compromise in smoke-free rooms, or the greater clout exercised by a bigger or more powerful local authority which goes to make up the region. They're having us on.
The second one has such a wide remit (I've pasted in the bullet points - the original page is here) - its bound to get them wrong - why should airport security and tarts in Effingham road be lumped together in a single piece of legislation, why are controls on lapdancing clubs and misuse of alcohol lumped together in the same sentence? There's no pattern to it, no rationale, Its a headless chicken setting off in all directions at once. And how does it help democracy to say "Further information on the Government’s Prostitution Strategy can be found here."
and provide a link to something that needs a password and no way of getting one.

Crime and policing Bill
* Increase police accountability and effectiveness by providing a clear and powerful voice for the public through directly elected representatives;
* Protect the public by facilitating and strengthening collaborative working of police forces at all levels from local neighbourhood policing through to the regional and national levels;
* Protect vulnerable groups, particularly women and children by tackling demand for prostitution and strengthening arrangements around sex offender prevention orders and foreign travel orders;
* Prevent low level crime and disorder taking root in our communities by tightening controls around lap dancing clubs and the misuse of alcohol, including the sale of alcohol.
* Strengthen our ability to fight serious and organized crime through improved recovery of criminal assets and improved international judicial co-operation;
* Provide greater clarity for all in airport security by improving inter-agency co-operation in establishing airport security arrangements;

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