A sex shop has been given the go-ahead to open in Truro.

Mrs Palm Ltd has been granted a license to open the shop in Little Castle Street, next door to Trevails, a school uniform shop that led the nutter campaign against the sex shop application.

Cornwall Council's miscellaneous licenses committee granted permission at a meeting last Friday.

Nutter 'anger' over an application to open a sex shop in Truro has sparked a letter-writing campaign to Cornwall Council's licensing committee.

90+ complaints have been made opposing a move by Mrs Palm Ltd from setting up next to a school uniform store in Little Castle Street.

Much of the campaign has been led by Vicky Trevail, manager of Trevail's uniform shop, who recently collected a 700-name petition.

Many of the letters come from schools and church groups, arguing that such a store is 'inappropriate' in the planned location because of its proximity to a shop used by children and its position on a bus route.

Among them was one from The Christian Institute which said that it was out of character with the area as a locality characterised by tourist attractions, restaurants and cafés, shops and other businesses. It added: It is, therefore, not the sort of place which is suitable for a sex shop.

Many of the letters will have to be discarded because they focus on the moral aspect of having such a store.

Edward Braxton Reynolds speaks in favour of the application. He wrote: Garments and other suitable products sympathetically and appropriately displayed in a shop window can be informative without any risk of causing offence. He added anyone under-age who persistently attempted to enter would either be prosecuted or face an injunction.

Complaining about the proposed sex shop one correspondent wrote: I wish to object moist (sic) strongly. It was just one of a number of unintentional errors, musings and in some cases just funny missives sent to licensing officer Julie Flower, who is dealing with the case.

Some were more graphic in their depiction of the likely clientele: I would reiterate that some people will find it awkward, perhaps even disturbing, to bump into sexually aroused men going to and from a sex establishment.

Cocktails Ltd has applied for a sex establishment licence to open a new sex shop at the former Little Chef, off the A1(M) Great North Road, in Sawtry, near Peterborough.

The company submitted the application to Huntingdonshire District Council on July 27.

The former restaurant has been closed for a number of years, leaving the site derelict.

District councillor for the village Dick Tuplin said he would like the site to once again become a motorway service area. He said: The service station has disappeared altogether. The slip road goes right through where that used to be. It's an eyesore, so I would like to see the site developed. No-one would want to open a hotel near a sex shop.

Huntingdonshire District Council is inviting public views on Cocktails Ltd's plans.

Update: The Wrong Kind of People

15th August 2010. Based on article from cambridge-news.co.uk

Opponents of the redevelopment of a former Little Chef restaurant beside the A1 at Sawtry claim that a village location is the wrong place for a sex shop and the kind of people it may attract.

If the bid by Rotherham-based Cocktails, which has a chain of 23 Pulse and Cocktails sex shops, gets the go-ahead, it would become the first licensed sex shop in Huntingdonshire.

Keith Walters, former leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, who lives in Sawtry, said: I don't want this nice rural village turned into a Las Vegas strip. It is not the Golden Mile at Blackpool or Soho. I can't speak for all 6,000 people here, but I haven't found anyone who wants it.

He said residents were already writing objections to the plan and that he had written to Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, about it and would take the case up with MPs.

Walters said: I think the whole tone of it is wrong and local people will not want to say you go up the A1 and turn left at the sex shop to get to my house.

Parish councillor Joyce Day, who chairs the planning committee, said: I don't think a village is the right place for this sort of thing. It could bring undesirables into the village, although I can't say it would. Cllr Day said there were limited objections to a licence application.

North-West Cambridgeshire MP Shailesh Vara said: I am against the proposed sex shop and have made my views clear to Cllr Ian Bates, the leader of Huntingdonshire District Council and Cllr Doug Dew, cabinet member in charge of planning. It is not the right place for that kind of shop and I hope the council will listen to the many local protests which are being made.

The period for residents to comment on the plan has been extended to September 8, after the council was unhappy with the way the application notice at the site was displayed.

Based on article from peterboroughtoday.co.uk

More than 40 members of the public turned up to a special meeting at Huntingdoneshire District Council to find out more about the licence application.

Afterwards Councillor Dick Tuplin said it was now planned to hold a public meeting, likely to be August 25, although time and location have yet to be agreed, to allow as many villagers as possible the chance to have their say.

Director of Pulse & Cocktails Clair Boothby said target customers were couples and the stores were designed with a female friendly atmosphere. She said: We require a licence at all of our stores to enable us to stock and sell a good range and variety of marital aids and lingerie to our customers. The premises in Cambridgeshire are located adjacent to the A1(M) motorway and not actually in the village of Sawtry itself.

The premises have been derelict for a number of years and our intentions are to invest in the refurbishment of the premises to improve its general appearance and transform it into a modern, retail outlet.

Update: The Wrong Kind of People

29th August 2010. Based on article from huntspost.co.uk

Around 200 people attended a meeting opposing a sex shop being opened in Sawtry.

A three-part motion of action was unanimously voted through demanding:

• Huntingdonshire District Council's licensing panel refuse the application because it would be inappropriate for the character of the localit
• That Sawtry Parish Council meet to establish its views on the application and send those to the district council before the September 8 deadline for comments
• Huntingdonshire District Council establishes a policy on sex establishments in the district before hearing the application

The meeting was chaired by ward councillor Darren Tysoe who read out his objection letter to the licensing panel, which stated: This is a sex shop on the entrance to the village. It will cast a shadow over Sawtry as a great place to live.

Keth Walters made the opening address, saying he lived in a village: Which is not deemed big enough to support a bank or a building society, nor a butcher or a baker or a candlestick-maker for that matter, but apparently can support a sex shop.

He said Rotherham-based Cocktails Ltd, which operates 23 sex shops, was looking for £200,000 a year turnover – and that's not possible from a village this size. He said the operators were far from being an Ann Summers shop as the company website stated it sold films which were too explicit to sell on the internet and could only be sold in a shop like this. The only two reasons HDC could give for refusal which would mean the decision could not be appealed against, he said, were: Having a sex shop was against that council's policy or it was inappropriate in regard of the character of the locality.

Resident Pauline Potter reported on her visit to a Cocktails Ltd establishment on the A1 near Grantham, saying it catered for extreme sexual tastes and was screening pornographic movies.

Graham Smith said the opening of a sex shop would affect house prices and the desirability of the village.

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Unit 4, 253 Portobello Road
Notting Hill
London
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Tube: Ladbroke Grove (0.3 km)

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Email: Sh! Store
Tel: 020 7221 5476

www.sh-womenstore.com

Hundreds of X-rated magazines and DVDs have been seized from Tyneside corner shops.

Trading SubStandards officers raided premises in Heaton and Byker, in Newcastle's East End, as well as ones in Fenham, Benwell and Denton, in the West End.

The goods recovered included adult magazines, which had been wrapped together with DVDs, all believed to contain hardcore movies. Other hardcore films were also seized.

It is believed the consignment hardcore porn had been shipped-in from overseas and that shopkeepers are being targeted by people posing as legitimate suppliers.

Nearly 200 items were taken from outlets in Heaton, Byker, Fenham, Denton and Benwell. It is believed the mags and DVDs have been shipped into Tyneside from Quebec, in Canada. But the DVDs that were being peddled together with pornographic magazines had not been classified. Some of the magazines recovered appeared to be recognised titles such as Penthouse.

Under current licensing laws, any movie that has been given a hardcore R18 rating can only be sold at a registered sex shop. There are only two such outlets in Newcastle and none of the stores visited as part of this investigation has been licensed.