Why hasn’t Venture spoken out?

At the time I was in a relationship with an abusive partner. After several years of being subjected to being beaten up, humiliated verbally and physically, and to emotional cruelty, I apprehensively followed a friend’s advice to contact the Venture. There I met a lovely lady who was the women’s worker who took me into the Women’s Room and after a cup of tea and a chat, she arranged for me to go to a women’s refuge.

She and a number of other women took me to my home to collect essential belongings while my partner was at work. They then took me to the refuge, provided me with ongoing support, and got me fixed up with a sympathetic solicitor. They also arranged for Bath Place’s Welfare Rights Team to assist me in successfully claiming benefits.

The Housing Advice Service at Bath Place also helped me regarding the home that my partner and I lived in and which he was later evicted from. There is no telling what I, as a vulnerable woman suffering domestic violence, might have done if BPCV had not been there to help and support me.

It is because of that experience, and the fact that the problems I encountered still exist today, that I find it almost impossible to understand why the present-day Bath Place Community Venture did not raise any objection to the granting of two Sex Entertainment Licences to premises in South Town, the latest one being a property just a short stroll from the Venture’s historic home.

It seems a bit like a slap in the face to all the hard work and committment that Bath Place put in to helping vulnerable and exploited women in the past. - Name and address supplied.