SEX venues in Bournemouth will no longer be able to call themselves ‘gentlemen’s clubs’ if new council recommendations get the go-ahead.

A consultation on possible new rules for sex shops and lapdancing clubs is also calling for no more sex shops at the “family orientated” Triangle area of the town.

The consultation on the proposed changes to regulations for sex shops, lapdancing clubs, and other establishments, was launched by the town’s licensing board and runs until the end of September. Current regulations date back to 2010.

Bournemouth council’s document states “there shall be no specific reference to ‘Gentlemen’s Club’” in any advert promoting a sexual entertainment venue.

Responding to the proposed amendment, Glenn Nicie, director of Hampshire Restaurants Limited, which operates lap dancing club FYEO, said: “Not sure what is wrong with ‘Gentlemen’s Club’. It explains what it is without offending.

“What do we call it – ‘sexual entertainment venue’? We debated this with parliament and they agreed with us that a ‘Gentlemen’s Club’ is a good descriptive.”

Acting for the company, licensing lawyer Julia Palmer, of JCP Law, added: “The inability to use this description will cause problems.

“The term ‘Gentlemen’s Club’ appears to be nationally recognised as one providing SEV licensed activities. Alternative descriptions (sexual entertainment venue, lap dancing/adult strip club) are distinctly less salubrious and give, my client feels, a completely wrong impression of a downmarket and seedy establishment/area of the town.

“Whilst it is, of course, true that both men and women are customers at the club, it is a fact that the majority of customers are men. Women customers appear to have no difficulty in understanding that the description of the club does not exclude them, and they are always very welcome.”

In a bid to include a cap on the number of sexual establishments in Bournemouth, the council also suggests ‘appropriate’ locations, listing all of those already in existence including two sex shops in Holdenhurst Road, one in the Triangle, and three sexual entertainment venues in the Old Christchurch Road area. No other areas are considered ‘appropriate locations’, the document states.

The Bournemouth Town Centre Business Improvement District (BID) commented it would be a “disadvantage to limit any sex shops to less than two” in the Triangle, although they added they would “support no sex venues” in the area.

Other proposed amendments outlined in the document include new protocols for the treatment and welfare of vulnerable people when they attend sex venues.

This includes those whose “mental capacity is or appears reasonably to be impaired”.

Mike Reynolds, of Lansdowne Baptist Church, has welcomed this.

He said: “We would go further and suggest that all staff should be made aware of the protocol and given training on it, and this should be demonstrated when licensing department checks take place.”

If approved by the board the revised regulations will be presented to full council for a final decision. The consultation ends at 9am on Friday, September 30.