Anger at pole dance plans

Only members will be able to enjoy the dancing

MP Ann Widdecombe has attacked plans for a pole dancing club in her constituency.

The Conservative MP has said Maidstone could become "the Soho of the south" if plans for a weekly topless dancing night go ahead.

The pole dancing would take place in an existing nightclub once a week and would only be open to members.

The club owner has said the events will not be sleazy.

The topless pole dancing would take place at the Basement club in Maidstone town centre.

There's nobody going to be standing outside dragging people off the street Club owner Peter Nicholls

The club's owner has not had to apply to the council for permission as the club already has an entertainments licence and the fact it will be open to members only means the licence will not need to be modified.

But Miss Widdecombe said: "I think if you add an erotic industry, a sex industry, to the heavy drinking culture that there already is in Maidstone on a Friday and Saturday night, you're going to turn it into the Soho of the south."

The MP's comments have been dismissed by Peter Nicholls, who owns the Basement.

He told the BBC: "Dancing has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years.

"There's nobody going to be standing outside dragging people off the street, there will be no nudity out on the street, even the flyers will not have any nudity on them.

"Whether it will be good clean fun, it will not be sleazy."