Judges have backed a decision by Oxford City Council refusing to renew a licence for The Lodge lap-dancing club.

It follows a fight by Alistair Lockwood Thompson, who runs the club in Oxpens Road, to overturn the authority’s decision in September, 2012.

He had faced objections from the Oxford Feminist Network which carried out a survey of women in the area, some of whom claimed they had been harassed by punters leaving the club.
 
Pointing out that he had spent more than £100,000 relocating and refurbishing the club, Mr Thompson's lawyers said it was perverse of the committee to refuse to renew a licence, which had been granted just a year earlier, when 'nothing had changed'.

However, dismissing his appeal, Lord Justice Lloyd Jones today said the committee was entitled to take the view that Oxpens Lane was an 'inappropriate' location for a lap dancing club 'having regard to the character of the relevant locality'.

The judge, sitting with the Master of the Rolls, Lord Dyson, and Lord Justice Longmore, ruled it was not necessary for objectors to show that 'something had changed' since the licence was first granted in July 2011.