Accrington town centre is a suitable location for a lap dancing club, council bosses have ruled.
Hundreds of residents have backed a campaign to stop the opening of the town’s first lap dancing club, I Candy.
Anthony Carr, one of a group who want to open the club opposite the town hall on Blackburn Road, has already been granted a Sexual Entertainment Venue licence, but has yet to receive planning permission or an alcohol licence.
The bar would be located at the former UPSI Bar above Quattro’s Italian Brasserie, on Blackburn Road. It has no connection with the restaurant.
Coun Gareth Molineux, Hyndburn’s licensing chairman, told a full council licensing chiefs had received no objections to the application, and had simply applied the law.
The council adopted Schedule 3 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 earlier this year.
Coun Molineux said: "The council does not need a moral stance in relation to sexual entertainment venues and it would not be lawful for us to do so.
"We considered the Home Office guidance. There are no other sexual entertainment venues so there is no possibility of over supply.
"It’s not a residential area and not in a sensitive location near services targeted at children. Nor are there buildings nearby used for tourism or religious purposes."
At last week's full council meeting, a written question from campaign leader Rev Kevin Logan asked why councillors considered the club would "fit the character of our town."
He claimed they had allowed licence applications to be rubber-stamped without debate.
He told the Observer: "The council acted high-handedly in adopting this law to grant Sexual Entertainment Licences without any consultation and with hardly any notice.
"All they did was put up a small typewritten note on a lamp-post in the town centre and a small ad in the local newspaper. If the councillors think that in certain circumstances such a sex entertainment venue is in keeping with the town, and their ruling implies this, then they have a very low view of Accrington.
"It will be next to the town hall and across the way from the parish church, and at the exact place where hundreds of children disembark from their school buses."
Mr Carr has applied for an alcohol licence and residents have until Monday, November 21 to submit their views.
He has said the club would create 22 jobs, boost the town’s nighttime economy and would adhere to controlled rules and regulations laid down by the council.
