Row over stripper car wash
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Row over stripper car wash
From: AAP
June 13, 2006
Catfight ... a plan by strip club Kittens to run a car wash staffed by employees such as Alice (above) clad only in bikinis has outraged local church groups. Pic: Chris Eastman A PLAN by a Melbourne strip club to staff a car-wash business with strippers clad in bikinis has outraged local church groups.
A spokesman for the Kittens Car Wash today said he was surprised at the reaction of locals in the southeastern suburb of Oakleigh after a risque roadside advertisement was put on show at the site two weeks ago.
The advertisement on the side of a large "party bus" shows a woman lying down, her back arched, wearing a bikini that has the straps positioned off her shoulders. It advertises Kittens strip clubs.
The advertisement is at the front of the Kittens Car Wash, whose parent company says it plans to have six of its strippers wearing scanty bikinis washing cars in the summer, Kittens spokesman Angelo Dimozantos said.
Mr Dimozantos said he did not know what the fuss was about.
He said the Advertising Standards Bureau had approved the artwork as suitable for the business Kittens was in and the bus would be parked on busy North Road whenever it was not being used for buck's parties.
He said the Oakleigh car wash was a test site, and more of the car washes would open across Melbourne if it was a success.
Even if the car wash fails, he said it would generate good publicity for Kittens strip clubs.
But some locals have expressed concern over the image of the woman on the bus, and the idea of the bikini car wash.
"I don't want to sound like a prude, but I don't think it is a particularly good influence on children," said Lynne Addis, who runs a playgroup at a nearby Baptist Church.
Pastoral worker at the Sacred Heart church Kathy Lillis is also concerned about the car wash.
"At this church we are not wowsers, but it does offend me from a personal point of view," Ms Lillis said.
A stripper who posed for photographers at the wash, 20-year-old Melinda, said she thought men would be encouraged to get their car cleaned at the site.
"They like to see girls in bikinis washing cars, especially in summer. It's a turn-on," she said.
Glen Eira Council community relations director Paul Burke said the council had no planning controls over the car wash or the bus.
"There are no controls that we can enforce here," he told AAP.
Planning enforcement officers had examined the car wash and the bus and found no breaches of planning or building controls, Mr Burke said.
Officers would examine the case to ensure the car wash had the necessary permits, he said.
"We are going back through the history of the car wash to see if it's OK, but we have found no planning issues so far."
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