Bells ring over brothel plans

A Napier escort service owner who wants to establish a brothel in Napier's Cathedral Lane says his first idea was a non-alcoholic bar and a dance club.
But when James Woods, who has run Fleurs Escorts in Napier for 20 years, was told by a complainant that a dance bar would be too noisy, he decided to apply for an on-licence instead to go with a brothel.
Mr Woods, who operates under Kay N Jay Holdings Ltd with his wife Kathy, has applied to the Napier City Council for the licence, attracting submissions from six detractors.
"I wanted to set up a dance club but straight away I got opposition because it was going to be too noisy," Mr Woods said.
After the objections Mr and Mrs Woods put the building, which they had owned for a matter of weeks, back on the market for $280,000 plus GST - the same amount that they had bought it for.
But nobody was interested in buying the Art Deco property, so the couple continued with their plans for a brothel.
Mr Woods said running a brothel in the CBD was a legitimate business, since the legalisation of prostitution more than a year ago. He did not think the brothel would interfere with any of the neighbouring businesses.
"It's a discreet type of business as people don't want to make any noise," he said.
Large amounts of alcohol would not be consumed on the premises, he said, but clients would be offered a glass of wine. But his application has not impressed his neighbours. The Rev Helen Jacobi, dean of St John the Evangelist's Cathedral, said if the application were approved at a council hearing the area - which already has security problems - would probably become more unsafe.
"I find it strange that on the one hand the council is addressing the issue of night time security in the city yet, on the other hand, that it would consider granting such a licence," Mrs Jacobi said.
The cathedral was trying to work with the council in making the area a safer place, but the application flew in the face of what the council was trying to achieve, she said.
"Night time around the cathedral is not a very safe place to be and we don't want to make it more unsafe by more people of questionable character being around.
"If we felt that clients from the brothel were using our car park at night we would put chains back up," she said.
"We don't think that a brothel is a good thing, because it's exploitative of women, but brothels are legal now."
The manager of the neighbouring Cathedral Lane Academy International English School Steve Freeman said having a brothel next door to the school would be a distracting nuisance.
His wife Margaret, who is the school's principal, said she had no moral objection to brothels but was concerned of its proximity to her school - where she and her family also have a flat.
"I do not want to be judgmental with the people who want to open the massage parlour, but I do feel that it will have an adverse effect on my business," she said.
The school, which is in its second year of operation, attracts around 40 students a year. While most are adult Mrs Freeman said the intake included children as young as 13.
"I don't think it's acceptable that children should be next to a massage parlour. The students would be walking right past that site. Our courtyard, where the students spend their lunch time, is right next door and our classrooms also look out on that area."
According to Mrs Freeman, Anita Bocchino's counselling and pathological therapy business would have to move if the brothel's licence was granted.
"She felt that she would not be able to continue practicing in the area because of the nature of some of her client's addictions," she said.
But Mrs Freeman did not think it would come to her moving, convinced that the application would be turned down.
The Napier City Council's chief inspector Dave Fellows said the council had received six objections to the application since it was first advertised on September 15, but they could only apply to the sale of alcohol since a brothel was deemed a legitimate activity in the CBD under the district plan.