A PETITION against a lap dancing club in Worcester has been set up by a psychotherapist who has seen first-hand the “devastating” impact he says the trade can have on vulnerable young women.

The e-petition against the Black Cherry gentleman’s club, in Lowesmoor, has been started by Dr David Mair who lives around the corner from the venue which will feature naked and topless women.

Dr Mair believes the club at the former DNA nightclub, which is expected to open in the new year, will lower the tone of the area and create no go areas for women.

But licensee Ash Patel says the club will not be seedy or sleazy and, if anything, the extra security will make Lowesmoor safer.

He has succeeded in getting the DNA premises licence transferred to him after he withdrew the original plan to open a club at the former Images and Funk nightclub in the Butts.

The petition to Worcester-shire Regulatory Services, launched on Thursday, has so far been signed by more than 25 people.

It reads: “I am very unhappy about the decision to allow a lap dancing club to open in Lowesmoor.

“This is a mixed area, with a church, charity offices and student accommodation wi-thin yards of the premises.

“It is inappropriate and insensitive to allow a sex club to open so close to residential properties and I request that you withdraw the licence for this lap dancing club in the city centre.”

The 53-year-old said: “I have worked (as a psychotherapist) with people who have been involved in lap dancing when they were students and it has devastating consequences on them down the line.

“They suffer very low self-esteem and can be prone to eating issues and self-harm.

“They enter a place where their self-worth seems to depend on what men think of them as objects rather than as women. There is a very dark side to all of this.

“It is not the light-hearted, fun night out for the lads they want to present it as. I’m not anti-sex but I am against the objectification of women.”

Dr Mair has won the backing of an organisation called Object, which challenges ‘sex object culture’.

He believes the club is not suited to the location ‘virtually opposite a church’ (Worcester Elim Pentecostal Church) and near the entrance to St Martin’s Quarter, an area used by children walking to school.

But Mr Patel said the club would be discreet with no salacious advertising outside the venue to avoid creating offence.

“This is not a "sex club" which is something you might expect to find in Hamburg or Amsterdam, this a club licensed to play music and sell alcohol where there will be entertainment available in the form of dancing, all of which are strictly regulated,” he said.

“To suggest that the very presence of the club is a threat to local women or could cause endangerment to children is sensationalism to support the petition.”

Nuisance would be prevented by installing acoustically secure doors and he says there will be no exploitation of women.

The petition is at change-.org/en-GB/petitions/worc-ester-regulatory-services-withdraw-license-for-lap-dancing-club-in-city-centre-?share_id=NwEhijbola&-utm_campaign=mail-to_link-&utm_medium.