SAUNA and massage parlour operators are taking legal advice over Edinburgh City Council's plans to step back from its long-standing role of "overseeing" the premises.
The local authority plans to abandon the licensing of the city's saunas after a series of raids by Police Scotland in its Operation Windermere in June.
Since the clampdown, its officials have refused to certify six of the city's 13 saunas that were among those to have qualified for public entertainments licences for 30 years.
The so-called "blind-eye" policy evolved against the backdrop of rising concerns over HIV and Aids, and was considered to give sex industry workers health and personal safety protection.
However a council report said that "this approach is no longer proving to be effective".
The council hoped to end expensive legal tussles by halting its licensing regulation of saunas, but instead it faces further challenges in court.
A source connected to one Edinburgh sauna would say only: "We will have licensing experts looking at this."
The council has been challenged in court over its licensing decisions since the clampdown and a sheriff recently said the it had "erred in law" in the way it had dealt with one sauna licensing application.
Sheriff Alistair Noble said the council "failed to provide a coherent statement of reasons" for licensing the sauna after that particular challenge.
It is planned the council will no longer regulate saunas under the licensing system from February next year.
Instead, trading standards and public health officials will respond to any complaints made by members of the public over the premises "just like a shop."
Mark Turley, head of community services at the council, said in a report: "The current policy is operating in a contentious climate which has arisen due to multiple legal challenges to both the granting and refusal of a number of licences. If the current policy were to continue then further legal challenges are likely."
The council was unable to say how much it had spent on legal actions over the policy but Mr Turley said: "This situation carries reputational and financial risk for the council and does not contribute to risk reduction within these premises.
"It is therefore proposed that the Public Entertainment Resolution be revised to remove massage parlours and sauna premises."
The council said along with NHS, social work and police it would offer support to anyone working in the city's saunas.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article