Permit writer at town, but topless (9)
I believe the answer is:
authority
'permit' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'writer at town but topless' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'writer' could be 'author' (synonyms) and 'author' is found within the answer.
'town' could be 't' (abbreviation for town) and 't' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for authority that I've seen before include "Power, influence" , "Expert; permission" , "Mandate" , "Power to expercise control" .)