Bar fined £1,600 for letting people dance

Bar owners have slammed council safety chiefs after being slapped with a £1,600 bill – for letting customers dance. Lucy O’Brien and Rick Clements from the Lounge, in Hazel Grove, were fined £1,000 with £633 costs after the first prosecution of its type in Stockport.

They were hauled before the court after police went to the bar and saw customers dancing in an upstairs function room. The bar had been warned a year earlier that dancing was against the terms of its licence, the town’s magistrates heard. Miss O’Brien and Mr Clements admitted a charge of allowing facilities to allow people to dance. But after the hearing, Miss O’Brien, 31, said: “We have been victimised. Dancing is not a crime, the council has been completely over-zealous.



“There were just two or three girls who started to dance. We have done all we can to discourage people but you can’t tie people’s legs together. People being paid to find things like this is a waste of taxpayers’ money.” Mr Clements, 35, added: “It is ridiculous, we have a well-run, trouble-free bar. In a recession it’s stressful enough running a business without all this.”

A council spokesman said: “The company was fully aware of the restrictions and the risk to customers but chose to continue to operate regardless of this. We believe that the appropriate action was to prosecute on the grounds of public safety given the fact that the licence had previously been refused. This is the first occasion where the council has prosecuted a company in these circumstances. As always in matters like this the prosecution was a last resort.”