DEFIANT lap dancing club bosses last night revealed they are taking the fight over the loss of their licence to the very top.

Managers at The Lodge, in Oxford city centre, yesterday signed off legal documents which will see their case taken to the High Court.

Furious campaigners hit out at the decision and warned it could open the door for other lap dancing clubs in the city.

The club, in Pennyfarthing Place, off St Ebbe’s Street, was refused a sexual entertainment venue licence by Oxford City Council last month.

But yesterday its owners said they would fight on, battling opposition from neighbours, councillors and equality campaigners.

Last night club owner Al Thompson said the venue had a good case.

He told the Oxford Mail: “We instructed a legal team.

“We are going to fight this but it is not a cheap process.”

Mr Thompson said staff could lose their jobs if lap dancing did not continue at the club.

He said: “This is not just about lap dancing, this affects a lot of people, it is how we make our living.”

But Hannah Clare, who led a protest against lap dancing clubs in Oxford earlier this month, said she hoped any High Court review upheld the council’s decision.

Miss Clare, who works at the Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre, added: “The worry would be the decision could impact on future applications for these kind of places.

“This is part of an industry that objectifies women’s bodies.”

The council originally granted a variation to the licence for The Lodge in December 2009, to allow lap dancing, and at the time said it had no grounds to refuse it.

But, under new powers adopted by the authority in June last year, lap dancing clubs can now be refused if they are in residential areas, close to schools or play areas, near shopping centres or tourist hot spots or close to churches and other places of worship.

Under the revised Local Government Miscellaneous Provisions Act, the lap dancing club needed a sexual entertainment venue licence and the council refused The Lodge’s application at a hearing in February.

It was refused “on the grounds that a sexual entertainment venue at the premises would be inappropriate, having regard to the character of the relevant locality and the use to which other premises in the vicinity are put”.

Under the Act, the only challenge available to the club’s owners is to seek a judicial review in the High Court.

Tony Payne, licensing and development manager at Oxford City Council, said the authority was not in a position to comment at this stage.

He added: “They have made us aware of their intention to seek a judicial review.”

The neighbouring St Ebbe’s Church fought and lost a court appeal against the club’s licence last summer.

Earlier this month the Rev Vaughan Roberts, of the church, backed the council’s decision and said he did not believe lap dancing clubs should continue to have a base in the centre of Oxford.