Council bosses have given the green light for fetish nights to continue in the Gay Village after a row over the legality of consensual sex in 'darkrooms'.

The M.E.N revealed last month that police and licensing authorities had launched a crackdown on events such as Club Alert! that have been running for decades.

Over the last six months, licensing officers have repeatedly visited premises including Night People and The Eagle and warned them they are breaking the law.

The dispute centred on whether the events were operating as 'private members clubs' and could therefore permit men to have consensual sex.

Organisers insisted this had always been the case but following legal warnings some venues decided they could no longer host fetish nights as landlords feared losing their licence.

Andrew Underwood, co-owner of The Eagle, said he had continued to run fetish nights because he believed he wasn't doing anything wrong but he'd had to deal with frequent visits from licensing officers as a consequence.

In statements issued to the M.E.N last month, both Greater Manchester Police and Manchester Council said they were merely investigating complaints.

(Image: Joel Goodman)

But organisers said the complaints were clearly vexatious and accused authorities of an orchestrated attempt to 'sanitise and gentrify' the Village.

Labour councillors for the Piccadilly ward backed them and criticised police and licensing officials, accusing them of wasting resources by investigating what "consenting adults" get up to.

The M.E.N's story was picked up by several publications that serve the LGBT+ community and many critics said the row was damaging to Manchester's reputation as a welcoming city.

In response, council bosses launched an investigation and have now declared they are happy for fetish nights to continue.

Cllrs Pat Karney and Bev Craig were asked to report back to the Executive Member for Licensing Rabnawaz Akbar about the issue.

After visiting the clubs themselves, the councillors are happy they comply with legislation that requires fetish events to operate as private members clubs.

This means areas being clearly curtained off within a venue and that people attending are required to sign in.

Cllrs Karney and Craig also said they found 'no evidence that council staff had engaged with homophobic behaviour' and that a 'more robust and vigorous' complaints system should be put in place to deal with licensing complaints in future.

It is understood that the number of Manchester Council licensing officers grew last year to cope with the increasing number of venues in the city centre.

Council sources suggested that with their new capacity, officials were simply keen to give venues attention that had not been possible in the past and they were not motivated by anything else.

Adrian Perrett who runs Club Alert! said he was 'very pleased' with the result.

"After productive discussion from all sides, we have agreed a way forward which allows our events to continue," he said.

"We support the recommendations and want to work with the Council and Greater Manchester Police to ensure zero problem events."

Jon-Connor Lyons, Labour councillor for the Piccadilly ward, described the move as a 'major change' of council policy.

"The Council has supported the Gay Village over 30 years and we need to work together to resolve any issues going forward," he added.

Cllr Akbar said: "I accept these three recommendations from Cllr Karney and Cllr Craig, the Council wants to work closely with all night time venues in the city.

"I'm pleased that they found no inappropriate or homophobic behaviour from staff who have a difficult job."