You need to be able to open a strip club to be able to open a fair club
Sheffield City Council's consultation on a nil cap in the city
Readers, this is important. Sheffield City Council currently has a survey for Sheffield residents to complete to capture their views on a nil cap for sexual entertainment venues (SEVs) in the city. If you are a Sheffield resident you can complete the survey here. The Sex Worker’s Union has put together guidance to help you complete the survey. Please read the guidance and complete the survey in your own words, adding your own thoughts and points of view.
What does this mean? This is the first step towards making it impossible for a new strip club to apply for a SEV in Sheffield. Currently, there are no strip clubs in the city, this bit of policy is about preventing future clubs. A ‘nil cap’ means that the amount of licences that could be granted in the city is capped at ‘nil’. The implications of this are serious. Workers want to have safe spaces for work. This is possible. However, we need to have the possibility of a work place to exist to have fair and safe working conditions.
In my opinion, the survey is written from a biased viewpoint with the aim of stirring up anti-sex work sentiment. The picture of SEVs that the survey conjures emerges wholly from those that oppose sex work. And the consultation is being conducted excluding worker’s voices. Can you imagine that?
If my newsletter here can convey anything, it’s that strip clubs need to be rethought and improved but that stripping is complex and interesting work. Strippers deserve safety and respect in their workplaces. No progress can be made, no new vision of a club, no worker-run collective can be realised, in the context of a nil cap.
Please take the survey if you can.
As the general election campaigns continue apace in the UK, ask the candidates standing in your constituency if they support full sex work decriminalisation.