Contact ban for lap-dancing club

Physical contact between lap dancers and customers is to be banned at a Cornish night club.

The rule means dancers at the Red Square (Divas) club in Newquay must stay 3ft (0.91m) away from customers.

It brings the club in line with four other lap-dancing establishments in the resort.

Red Square said it would appeal against the ban which Restormel Borough councillors voted in favour of at a meeting on Monday.

The ban will not come in to force until the appeal has been heard.

The girls do choose to work in these clubs but they need protection Tracy Earnshaw, campaigner

Three lap dancers from the club sat through the four-hour council meeting when the ban was debated on Monday evening.

Andrew Waters, the chair of Restormel's licensing committee, said it was important to bring Red Square in line with Newquay's other lap dancing clubs.

But Nicholas Hall, the solicitor representing Red Square, said: "No alcohol is served within the dancing area.

"Every seat can be seen by a full-time security presence and activities are monitored by CCTV cameras.

"The management engage their dancers in a formal contract which includes a 'code of contact' which each dancer is invited to execute as part of her employment."

Tracy Earnshaw, who campaigned for the contact ban, said: "I would like to think that the club would see that it's perfectly reasonable to have a condition whereby the girls shouldn't be touched.

"The girls do choose to work in these clubs but they need protection, and that condition offers that."