A NIGHTCLUB will become the first lap dancing bar in the Highlands despite the activity being called a blatant exploitation of women by the licensing authority chairwoman.

Hush nightclub in Inverness has been given permission to sell alcohol when it lays on lap dancing entertainment which, having obtained the licence, it will now provide on a regular basis.

However, there will be strict conditions, including a ban on the dancers removing underwear and any physical contact between club patrons and performers.

Agencies combating violence against women opposed the granting of the licence because of the perceived risk of increased sexual violence, links to prostitution, crime and disorder

But councillors on the Highland Licensing Board were reminded by their legal adviser that they were not licensing the dancing, only the alcohol.

Lorna Murray, the Inverness solicitor representing the night- club's owner Shane Manning at the hearing, said the project was being backed by the owners of two lap dancing clubs in Aberdeen and one in Dundee.

Those clubs had CCTV and stewards, she said, and they enjoyed an excellent relationship with local police. There had never been a complaint about the clubs in more than 15 years of operation.

She said that spoke volumes, as did the fact that the police in Inverness had not lodged a specific objection to the application.

Ms Murray said the same protocols would be adopted in running the Inverness club. The clubs "would do nothing to sully their good reputation", she said.

But councillors also heard from Gillian Gunn, of the Highland Violence Against Women Strategy Group, which includes representatives of NHS Highland, Police Scotland, the Highland Council, Women's Aid and Rape and Abuse Line.

She questioned the importance of there not having been complaints about these other clubs. "It's unlikely, but let's assume a patron has a complaint or one of the adult entertainers has a complaint, who do they take that to?" she asked.

She said there was evidence from across the country that where lap dancing clubs are located, there is increased fear and distress, increased incidence of sexual violence and links to prostitution.

She said that lap dancing was incompatible with work that public bodies were doing on eradicating inequality.

But LibDem Skye councillor Drew Miller, who is vice-chairman of the licensing board, thought this evidence was too dramatic. "Because it is adult entertainment it has created a huge furore of comment," he said. "To me, this is simply a licensing application."

However, the chairwoman, Easter Ross SNP councillor Maxine Smith, had a very different perspective

"I completely disagree with that. It is not a simple licensing application. I perceive it as exploitation of women. I am sorry, whichever way you look at it you are talking about women who are scantily clad or probably naked, with people who are drinking alcohol.

"I think if you have got a man who has been drinking copious amounts of alcohol and you have half-naked women put before him, that can cause problems – that would impact on public safety. But I have been told by my legal minders that we have to just concentrate on the alcohol side of it."

She said she was frustrated that as a board, they could not embrace the policies already adopted on equality and diversity when deciding this licence.

Some councillors took a less serious view. One alluded to karaoke and how some of its practitioners should have been prosecuted. Another said: "If this was a planning application I would have called for a site visit."

Meanwhile, Nairn SNP councillor Liz MacDonald, who made headlines some years ago for her belly dancing hobby, supported granting the licence.

In 2005 she led a group of 134 dancers from across the world, whose five-minute routine in Nairn gave them an entry in the Guinness Book of Records.