'They said there would be no moral judgement, but I think there was'

The owner of a club in Altrincham town centre where women danced topless until recently is on the lookout for new premises after his attempt to renew his Sexual Entertainment Licence failed. Trafford’s council’s public protection sub-committee refused Jonathan Dodd’s bid for the new licence for Totties Lap Dancing Club, which had been running for the last 24 years.

Mr Dodd is continuing to run the bar as a nightclub but has only six months left on the lease from his landlord. He said the option to appeal against the refusal of the licence to the magistrates’ court would have been too expensive, bearing in mind there was only a short amount of time left on the lease.

“If we had four or five years left on the lease, I would be appealing,” he said. “I think it would be better to find more viable premises.

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“I would like to stay in Altrincham and we would quickly find out whether they [the council] are bothered about having sexual entertainment in the town. I got the impression [from the sub-committee hearing] that this would not be case.

"They said they would not make a decision on moral grounds, but I think that’s exactly what they did.” He said that Totties had relaunched as a nightclub.

“We had about 100 people who attended regularly for lap dancing, but now, because we are more reliant on bar takings and hence needing more people, it may be harder to maintain control.” At the hearing last month, chair of the sub-committee, Coun David Jarman, told Mr Dodd his club was ‘no longer appropriate’.

He said: “We believe Altrincham is a regenerating area. It has changed with further residential properties and