It seems to be a case of “no sex please, we’re Northern Irish”! The Belfast City Council appears hell bent on shutting down one particular adult shop, which has been operating for over seven years in the heart of the Smithfield district because it is trading without a licence.
So far this year, the council has brought the Miss Behavin’ sex shop to court four times. Legal bills are already heavily mounting, with the retailer’s latest costs running at an estimated £500,000. But this will certainly increase to over £1million now that the proprietor has just instructed his legal team to bring his fight to the European Court of Human Rights.
The council refused to comment to hotpress on its motives for wanting to shutdown the Miss Behavin’ outlet on Gresham Street. But informed sources say that the council wants to revamp the district as a tourist and shopping attraction and, therefore, it is felt sex shops at this location would be “inappropriate”.
This theory seems to be backed-up by a statement made earlier this year by Trevor Martin, head of building control at the council, who said they have “not said no to sex shops – we have said no to sex shops in that area”. He added: “It was never a blanket ban and if someone made an application for a licence in another area it would have to be considered on its merits – it would not be the same situation.”
John Tohill of Miss Behavin’ told Hot Press that the council says it will grant them a trading licence provided they move their business off the beaten track. “It defeats the whole purpose of trying to get a licence in the first place. They’re fighting it on a location basis and they want us to go to an industrial area in Belfast, where you are not going to get the trade,” fumes Tohill. “We applied for a licence as soon as we opened – seven years ago. But now they don’t want us in the city because the street we’re in is about to get redeveloped. Our side of the street will almost die and the other side of the street will basically be Castle Court doubling in size – and that’s going to be one of the biggest shopping centres in Britain. So they are not going to want a sex shop one hundred yards across the street from it.”
Licences are only required for pornographic DVDs, according to Tohill. But he points out that they’ve moved their film stock to the third floor of the premises to ensure “it is out of the way”. So why are the council persisting with the legal battle?
“They are basically clutching at straws. They are saying a child could accidentally see the DVDs, which they can’t because you have to go three floors to reach them,” maintains Tohill. “They keep sending trading standards to raid the shop. Every time you are raided you face a fine in court of between £500 and £3,000. But they are trying to bring in legislation that will fine you £20,000, which would mean we’d have to closedown. It is absolutely crazy.”
Sean Fox, who is the solicitor representing Miss Behavin’, is adamant that his client will win the legal challenge. Fox says he will maintain, amongst other things, that a “central element of the case will be his client’s freedom of speech to “put something out in the market” is being curtailed. “We are in the process of finalising our submissions to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. We will be asking them to deal with this as a priority case,” he explains. “We have the client to consider – and most importantly, the client’s pocket – but the recommendation to go to Europe is on our firm belief that there is an arguable case. We consider there is sufficient merit that it has to at least be worth a punt.”
If Miss Behavin manages to win their case in Europe, the Belfast City Council will have to foot legal costs of £1million. Tohill argues: “When the public account committee look at the figures next year and find that the Belfast City Council have spent £1million of taxpayers money fighting a sex shop, I think they will have the right to make the councillors who run the committee pay out of their own pockets.”
Fox has a very interesting theory for the council’s reluctance to grant licences – he believes politicians fear a backlash from some electorate prudes. “It is a political approach. The guys on the grounds are very keen to get grant some licences but the councillors will just not pass a vote on it. They will certainly not admit this, but the councillors are conscious that someone might make political capital out of someone voting to give a particular applicant a sex shop licence. And that this will damage their credibility in the eyes of the voter come the next election. There is a strong feeling about that but, again, that’s something you can never prove. They don’t want to be handicapped by being labelled as a member of that committee that approved the sex shop,” he insists.
Belfast City Council “is making no comment at this stage,” according to their media relations officer, Sue Corbett.