Pressure grows on club owners to lap off

RESIDENTS handed a 2,500-strong petition into the council yesterday opposing a nightclub owner s plans to open a lap-dancing club in Crouch End. Haringey s licensing committee will decide on September 10 whether the Music Palace in Tottenham Lane can offe

RESIDENTS handed a 2,500-strong petition into the council yesterday opposing a nightclub owner's plans to open a lap-dancing club in Crouch End.

Haringey's licensing committee will decide on September 10 whether the Music Palace in Tottenham Lane can offer lap dancing and sell alcohol from 11am to 2am Monday to Saturday and 11am to 11pm on Sundays.

The application has sparked unprecedented opposition from the Crouch End community including a specially formed Lap Off campaign.

They are vehemently opposed to the application especially given the venue's proximity to Hornsey School for Girls, Rokesly Infant and Junior Schools and the YMCA building.

Hermiston Avenue resident Jon Rogers, 39, is a member of Lap Off. He said: "It has restored my faith in the community to know that more than 90 per cent of residents are opposed to this. If I was living in a place that did want a lap-dancing club, I'd move."

Licensee of the Music Palace, Serdal Ziya, a former Hornsey School for Girls pupil, said that the application was a last resort after other attempts at increasing business had failed.

"We don't want to cause trouble and we will take people's considerations into view," she said, "but we're just trying to earn a living.