Manchester lap dancing bar promises to stop referring to its performers as ‘girls’ as licence granted

A lap dancing bar will be allowed to operate for another year after promising to stop referring to its performers as ‘girls’.

Baby Platinum, which has been on Princess Street in the city centre since 2009, has secured a licence to operate for another 12 months after its annual renewal meeting. However, in appearing at the Town Hall on Monday morning (January 8), bosses also promised to end the practice of calling its dancers ‘girls’ on social media posts following objections.

Two objections were lodged against renewing the licence, with one drawing the committee’s attention to a series of negative reviews left on job-search website Indeed. It also highlighted the fact that ‘women [are] referred to as “girls”’.

Representing ABA Leisure Ltd, the firm which owns Baby Platinum, at the hearing was Claire Morris. She told the committee that ‘nothing had changed from last year’s [renewal], save for the updated booth policies and removal of the word “girls” from social media’. Baby Platinum, she added, had had its sexual entertainment (SEV) licence renewed for 11 years in a row. 

Ms Morris went on: “If there was any evidence of concern that Baby Platinum fostered or allowed sexism on the premises I would expect to be here with GMP and we would be talking about changing conditions [of the licence]… but they are not here today challenging the renewal.” She also addressed issues raised in one objection: “Any employer on Indeed will get negative reviews. I say with the greatest of respect that it’s not the committee’s job today to assess the weight of those reviews. The use of the word ‘girls’ on social media was only ever used in a friendly way. It will not be used going forward. We do not recognise Baby Platinum in the description of SEVs [in the objections]. I would say that the objectors do not really understand how Baby Platinum operates.”

The three-person licensing and appeals panel, chaired by Coun Glynn Evans, ‘decided to grant the application with the existing conditions’. In explaining their reasons why, legal adviser Laura Raine said: “The committee have found it appropriate to renew the licence as previously granted. They have taken into account that [ABA Leisure] is a responsible operator since 2009 and there are no objections from authorities. The committee note business is a legal and legitimate one and the committee must have due regard to the equality act, but taking everything into account they have not breached their duty to that in granting the application today.”