A BOURNEMOUTH nightclub’s dedicated women-only space has been praised.

Cameo in Fir Vale Road has launched a dedicated women’s only space in light of national reports about drink spiking.

The dedicated space named the ‘Ladies Lounge’ lies at the back of the club and is staffed by women.

The club’s general manager Marc Fear said: “Women, in particular, are feeling vulnerable right now, so we have created this lounge area where they can relax and buy a drink from the bar that is exclusively staffed by female members of our team."

“We used this for VIPS and different events but it will now be a solely dedicated ladies lounge.

“If they want to get out of the kerfuffle out there and they want somewhere quiet to go and sit then they can do no problem at all.

“We had a very positive response to the ladies lounge on Instagram and Facebook we’ve had over 1,200 likes and a lot of comments saying thank god a club is doing something about this and I just want people to feel safe at the venue and know that were taking this issue as seriously as we can take it because if it is happening we need to know how to deal with it. “

The Ladies Lounge will be open every night and the club has implemented a range of other safety measures including: staff training on drink spiking, 100% searches on entry, including the use of metal detector wands, CCTV/Bodycams which can be used as police evidence, anti-spiking devices, drug testing kits, qualified medics and a wellbeing room.

With regards to instances of drink spiking at the club, the manager said: “We do get a lot of allegations but out of those allegations, what’s serious it’s impossible to say.”