A FEMINIST group says it can breathe a sigh of relief now Colchester's only strip club has gone into liquidation.

The owners of Climax - a strip club in St Botolph’s Street, Colchester - appointed liquidators Re10 Restructuring and Advisory at the end of last year.

Top Drawer Entertainment, which ran Climax, had run up debts of £68,650 and had just £4,850 in assets to pay creditors.

Directors stated they chose to put the company into liquidation after being unable to pay a tax bill of £55,000.

The building opened as a strip club in 2009, despite protests by residents who deemed it inappropriate.

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Residents campaigned for the strip club to be closed down in 2012 after it had to apply for a Sexual Entertainment Venue licence, in order to stay open under new legislation.

But Colchester Council went ahead and granted the licence, and the club changed its name from Heaven to Climax under new ownership.

The Essex Feminist Collective then launched a campaign calling for the club’s closure, citing the venue as “degrading for women”.

Following the club going into liquidation, Elisa Vasquez-Walters, a founding member of the feminist group, said: “Whilst Covid has been awful for a lot of people it’s good to know that at least here, the small reduction in the exploitation of these women has benefited from it.

“Whilst we know that people will argue that these sorts of jobs are as good as any job, and that women choose to do them we also know that these women do not have protections that many people are able to take for granted in their employment, and find themselves in this sort of work through poverty and lack of alternative opportunities.”

“We believe that Colchester should be able to offer all of our residents that want to work, safe, secure and dignified employment without the need for sexual exploitation.”

A spokesman for Re10 Restructuring and Advisory said: “The future of strip clubs seemed bleak in a time of social distancing when bars and nightclubs have been high-risk locations for spreading Covid-19.

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“However, the company was forced into an insolvent position with no end in sight to the pandemic, the director did not see any possibilities for salvaging the business.”