Women’s groups speak out over Cheltenham strip club license

The venue is run by Red Apple Associates Ltd and will open to coincide with race days and the annual Cheltenham Festival.

A GlosWomen spokesman said they believed the license “relaxes the license conditions associated with these violations and continues to allow the club to advertise as a business in the city.”

“At the heart of this lack of engagement appears to be the depressing reality that the committee simply does not care about the lives of women and girls,” they added.

Some concerns surround an amendment to the licensing agreement that would allow physical contact between customers and performers.

A spokesman for SafeCheltenham expressed concern that interested parties were not given time to review the evidence and said it “undermines the fairness of the hearing” and “creates the impression of bias”.

They added that “changes should only be granted in “exceptional circumstances”. To date, we are not aware of any change requests that have been rejected.

“Providing a change to allow bodily contact between performers is extremely troubling given previous violations.”