New licence for Midland strip club despite complaints

Jul 2 2009 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Mail

A BIRMINGHAM city centre strip club has been granted a new licence after residents who said they were disturbed at the sight of scantily-clad women smoking outside failed to attend a public hearing to register their complaints.

Eleven letters objecting to Legs 11 in Gas Street – alleging noise from loud music, drunken customers and women in lingerie standing outside – were received by the city council licensing-sub committee.

There were also concerns about the number of sex establishments in the area close to flats and apartments off Broad Street.

But the letter writers were not present to give evidence when the club’s application for a licence was heard by the sub-committee yesterday.

Instead, councillors were told that Legs 11 was an “excellent neighbour”.

A spokesman for the Worcester Bar Residents Association, representing boat owners moored on the canal near Gas Street, said: “The club causes no noise, no disturbance and no problem. We are not kept awake by Legs 11. We are kept awake by other operators in the area.”

Terry Poultney, representing Legs 11 management, said allegations of loud music and of women in their underwear smoking outside were simply untrue.