Amara granted adult entertainment license

Leamington Spa nightclub, Amara, has been granted a license by Warwick District Council to provide ‘adult entertainment’ services, generating varied responses from students and local residents.

This ‘sexual entertainment license’ permits Amara to host lap-dancing and pole-dancing events up to seven days a week. With local club Shades being denied the same license last month, the decision has taken many by suprise.

Currently, both venues may only host events amounting to ‘sexual entertainment’ 11 times a year and no more than once a month.

The decision has attracted scrutiny after it emerged that Amara’s license was issued by the very same committee who reviewed and rejected the application for Shades.

Shades manager Rob Ransford told the Boar that he “doesn’t know” why the council chose to grant Amara a license. He was particularly perplexed by the justification for the rejection of a license for Shades; that the location was inappropriate, as “the two clubs are about five hundred yards from each other”.

Although not part of the committee himself, licensing manager of Warwick District Council, David Davies, sheds some light on this. He notes that although the same committee are responsible, certain aspects of the Amara application could have aided their success. He also noted that “the license was only granted for a year”.

Amara will only be offering its adult services between 11pm and 3am Sunday and Thursday and from 11pm until 4am Friday and Saturday. Due to this, the Council accept that there will be little or no impact on businesses, schools and places of worship.

However, to many who oppose the idea all together, such factors are irrelevant.

Leamington Spa resident Andy Holdcroft says the council “ought to consider the implications” and that “the community deserves better than this because in the long term it will simply send signals that Old Town is a free for all for all unpleasant activity”.

Such views are shared by the Leamington Mayor Alan Wilkinson. He opposed the decision to grant the license, stating “it has hugely setback efforts to regenerate the area”. He fears that “south town is in danger of becoming sleaze town” and that the decision made “doesn’t give any respect to the people who live there”.

A hearing was held on April 18th for local residents to voice their concerns. Amara was granted the license hours later.

There are also concerns about the potentially sexist nature of such venues. “While it is valid that there are always going to be women who enjoy doing that sort of thing, there’s a big problem with the culture surrounding lap-dancing and pole-dancing clubs in general” says Helen Gould, Warwick Students’ Union

Women’s Officer. “Reports suggest that safeguards such as the ‘no touching’ rule are not always followed which can lead to the assumption that every girl working there wants to be touched, which is dangerous”.

However, the reaction to the decision has not been altogether critical.

Warwick student Sean Okundaye rejects the idea that the granting of licenses such as this is negative, saying that “adult entertainment is not inherently sexist or anti-feminist”.

With a meeting for local residents taking place at All Saints Church in Leamington on May 23rd and a possible campaign by the Warwick Anti-Sexism Society in the works the debate over the provision of sexual entertainment in Leamington looks set to continue.