ANTI-SEX CRUSADE

ON A MISSION TO CLEAN UP CITY

DAWN Crichlow has led a crusade to triple the fees for new sex shops in a bid to “clean up the city”.

And she has a warning for the Coast’s fast-growing 140 street-corner massage parlours: “You’re next”.

The veteran Southport councillor successfully pushed for the application fees for new adult shops to increase from as low as $3638 to as much as $9946.

Brothel fees have gone up about $1100.

“This is about getting rid of businesses like this, cleaning up the city and improving our reputation,” Cr Crichlow said.

Ultimately, she said she hoped to remove the industry from the proximity of major shopping precincts to maximise the Coast’s family friendly image. “We are trying to put the kibosh on them and by increasing the fees, this is one way of doing it,” she said.

“There are also massage parlours on every street corner which are not running as genuine operations. They are terrible and give us a bad reputation and I want to see a lot less of them.”

The move was quietly pushed through the council’s budget process during confidential talks in May and June. Since coming into effect this month, no applications have been made for adult shops or brothels.

The Bulletin last year revealed an explosion in the number of massage parlours on the Coast. A council spokesman said: “The unscrupulous massage parlours are not a defined land use under our City Plan. However, if they were operated legally, these businesses would be defined as a “brothel” under our City Plan.”

Tweed councillor and former mayor Warren Polglase said he was concerned sex shop owners would head across the border. However, a leading property expert said the fee increase was unlikely to deter brothel operators.

“I don’t understand what they think that will do,” said Ray White Broadbeach commercial sales consultant Adam Grbcic. “Four thousand dollars ... it’s only one hour extra work for a brothel so it’s not much of a deterrent.”

Mr Grbcic last week sold the site of long-running Burleigh industrial estate brothel Secret Liaisons to a company planning to use it as a storage depot.

The brothel owner blamed unregulated massage shops for a downturn in business.