Future of Elegance strip club in Southsea to be decided by Portsmouth City Council next week

Councillors will decide on Wednesday, April 19, whether to renew the licence of Elegance in Granada Road, Southsea, ahead of its planned reopening in the coming weeks.

The venue has been closed since the pandemic but its owners say they have resolved staffing shortages that prevented it from operating again.

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Wellhot Ltd submitted its annual application for the renewal of the business’ sexual entertainment venue licence which will be considered by a city council licensing sub-committee after drawing dozens of objections.

Objectors said it was inappropriate to run a strip club in the area due to its close proximity to churches, play areas and schools and warned that strip clubs could lead to the abuse and exploitation of women.

‘I am opposed to the exploitation and objectification of women in the sex industry and feel that this kind of business should be discouraged,’ one of the anonymous objectors said.

‘However, if our city must have sex establishments, surely they should be located in the city centre or a more commercial part of town, not on a residential street in Southsea. My children walk to school and to the shops nearby, and I do not want them to be exposed to this kind of content at a young age.’

Another objection added: ‘This type of business has the potential to exploit vulnerable young women. It also increases loud drunken anti-social behaviour in the surrounding area which is not good for local residents and visitors.’

Elegance was first opened in 2012 by Wellhot Ltd, which also runs the Wiggle strip club in Landport, as well as businesses of the same name in Southampton, Bournemouth and Weymouth.

Business owner Paul Ojla said he had more than 20 years of experience in the industry and it was ‘one of the safest businesses there is’.

‘We have to renew the licence annually and every year we get the same objections, yet there’s never been any problems with either the police or licensing and the renewal has been granted each time without issue,’ he said.

‘The business closed during the pandemic because there weren’t the customers around, but we’ve just refurbished the building and should be ready to reopen in the next few weeks.’