UK Sex Shop News

The UK's adult trade magazine, Erotic Trade Only (ETO) runs an annual awards show. These are the major awards for Britain's online and offline sex shop trade. Here's a selection of the winners is the sex shop sector:

Best Retail Chain: Simply Pleasure

• Ann Summers
• Nice 'n' Naughty
• Private Shops
• Pulse & Cocktails
• Simply Pleasure

Best Individual Store: Saints & Sinners

• Coco de Mer [Covent Garden]
• Harmony [Oxford Street]
• Nice 'n' Naughty [Chester]
• Saints & Sinners [Blackpool]
• Sh! Women's Store [Hoxton]

Most Innovative Retailer: Sh! Women's Store

• Ann Summers
• Coco de Mer
• Lovehoney
• Nice 'n' Naughty
• Sh! Women's Store

Best Online Retailer: www.Lovehoney.co.uk

• www.Bondara.co.uk
• www.Lovehoney.co.uk
• www.Nicennaughty.co.uk
• www.Sextoys.co.uk
• www.Strawberryblushes.co.uk

The UK's adult trade magazine, Erotic Trade Only (ETO) runs an annual awards show. These are the major awards for Britain's online and offline sex shop trade. Here's a selection of the winners for 2013's awards that may be of interest to shoppers:

Best Female Product: Thrill

• G-vibe (Fun Toys)
• Hello Touch [Jimmyjane]
• Luna Beads Noir (Lelo)
• Stronic Eins (Fun Factory)
• Thrill (We-Vibe)

Best Male Product: Revo 2

• Cruiser Cock Ring [Perfect Fit]
• EGO [JOPEN]
• MasteRing [Screaming O]
• Revo 2 [Nexus]
• VerSpanken [Big Teaze Toys]

Best Consumable: ID Glide

• ID Glide [ID Lubricants]
• Liquid Gold [Liquid Gold Aromas]
• Platinum Extra Strong Aroma [Scala]
• Premium Aqua Gel [Give Lube]
• Ultimate P3 Male Virility Supplement [Ultimate]

Best Pleasure Products Brand: Pipedream

• California Exotic Novelties
• Lelo
• Pipedream
• Rocks-Off
• Sex & Mischief

Most Innovative Brand: JOPEN

• Je Joue
• JOPEN
• Lelo
• Pipedream
• We-Vibe

Best Consumable Brand:  ID Lubricants

• Give Lube
• Gun Oil
• ID Lubricants
• Platinum
• Ultimate

Best Erotic Books Brand: Xcite Books

• Arrow
• Cleis Press
• Silver Moon
• Sweetmeats Press
• Xcite Books

Best Lingerie Brand: Seven 'til Midnight

• Coquette
• Dreamgirl
• Leg Avenue
• Seven 'til Midnight
• Shirley of Hollywood

Nottingham City Council has consulted over policy of a nil limit for SEVs and sex shops in the city (where there is currently one club and one sex shop).

There were 1395 responses to the consultation with over a 1000 of these coming after a high profile call for a ban by the Nottingham Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner.

The first questions asks for opinions about the current number of clubs and shops in Nottingham:

Table Dancing Clubs:

• 35% too many
• 27% about right
• 34% too few
• 4% don't know

Sex shops:

• 31% too many
• 36% about right
• 30% too few
• 3% don't know

Only 30-31% felt that a nil limit would have a positive effect on Nottingham, whilst 44-47% felt that it would have a negative effect.

Another shows there is some concern about imposing a nil limit, with a minority supporting the City's proposal:

A sex shop chain has won a major victory against extortionate license fees charged by Westminster City Council, in a landmark decision .

The council has been ordered to slash the license fees it currently charges sex shops after various outlets, led by Simply Pleasures Ltd, brought their case to the appeal court. Timothy Hemming, owner of Simply Pleasures, based on Brewer Street, and six other shop owners had argued that at most, only 10% of the fees were justified.

Since 2005, Westminster City Council has charged sex shop owners in the West End of London £ 29,102 for their annual licence. In 2009, new European laws came into force in the United Kingdom, which prevented licensing authorities from charging fees going beyond the actual costs of the licensing process.

The council was challenging an earlier High Court ruling made in May last year that a European directive would not permit the licence fees paid by legitimate sex shop proprietors to include the cost of enforcement against unlicensed shops.

Licenses could now cost £ 1,100. The ruling will also force the council to repay more than £ 1m in overcharged fees collected since 2010.

Hemming said:

I think I can speak on behalf of licensees to say that we are all very much delighted at the verdict.

You never expect any outcomes in courts but we thought that our case was justified in being there.

The whole point of taking the council to court was because we thought the fee was excessive - we just wanted Westminster to justify the fee or admit that £30,000 was an extravagant amount.

Cllr Nickie Aiken, Westminster's cabinet member for public 'protection' and premises said the decision would have:

massive implications for local authorities nationwide. This is not just about sex shops, this affects almost everything for which councils charge to carry out enforcement.

Westminster is considering leave to appeal against the judgement.

A new sex shop has opened in Poole's High Street. Purrfectly Discreet, which opened on Thursday, has an over 18s warning on the door, and two large images of models in lingerie in the windows.

The shop at 82 High Street sells sex toys, clothing and accessories. The owner has applied to Borough of Poole for a sex shop licence to enable him to sell explicit R18 rated DVDs.

Of course there are few miserable whinges. Ward councillor and former mayor Carol Evans claimed: We want the high street to be a nice place for families -- for me this is the death knell.

Jonathan Sibbett, chairman of Poole Town Centre Management Board, claimed it would be detrimental to their plans to enhance the appeal of the high street.

The owner of Purrfectly Discreet is John Budimir from Bournemouth, who also has a sex shop in Southend-on-Sea. He told the Echo he had spent £ 100,000 on fitting it out, and wanted it to be the best looking shop in Poole . His licence application is now subject to a 28-day consultation until July 9, after which it will go before the licensing committee.

Packaging litter from products sold by a sex shop have been cited in a trivial objection to a sex shop licence renewal.

Pulse and Cocktails in Sawtry off the A1(M) is seeking to renew its sex shop licence, to put up a new sign and to be allowed to operate with a single member of staff instead of two at certain times.

But Huntingdonshire District Council's Licensing group, which will consider the applications on Wednesday, will hear that there have been just two letters from Sawtry residents and that the police had made no submissions.

A second resident said he had objected to the shop's licence twice before and although opposition had dwindled considerably , it was as a result of disillusionment with the democratic process, rather than acceptance of the shop.

Update: Licence approved

16th May 2013. See  article from  cambridge-news.co.uk

The licence was duly approved on condition that the shop carries out a litter check in the car park and entrance area between noon and 3pm.

The owner of a Newcastle newsagent has been fined after selling R18 porn DVDs without a sex shop licence.

The films were discovered at Mohammed Nasir's North shop when Trading Substandards staged a raid in April last year.

Among the catalogue of DVDs seized by council workers were titles including Teen Idol and Viv Thomas' La Corsetry La Femme.

Eight sample DVDs were sent to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) who confirmed they were R18-Rated films which required a licence to sell.

Magistrates fined Nasir £ 800 and ordered him to pay £ 95 in court costs and a £ 20 victim surcharge.

The UK's adult trade magazine, Erotic Trade Only (ETO) runs an annual awards show. These are the major awards for Britain's online and offline sex shop trade.

Here's a selection of the nominations for 2013's awards with more to follow.

Best Retail Chain

• Ann Summers
• Nice 'n' Naughty
• Private Shops
• Pulse & Cocktails
• Simply Pleasure

Best Individual Store

• Coco de Mer [Covent Garden]
• Harmony [Oxford Street]
• Nice 'n' Naughty [Chester]
• Saints & Sinners [Blackpool]
• Sh! Women's Store [Hoxton]

Most Innovative Retailer

• Ann Summers
• Coco de Mer
• Lovehoney
• Nice 'n' Naughty
• Sh! Women's Store

Best Online Retailer

• www.Bondara.co.uk
• www.Lovehoney.co.uk
• www.Nicennaughty.co.uk
• www.Sextoys.co.uk
• www.Strawberryblushes.co.uk

The UK's adult trade magazine, Erotic Trade Only (ETO) runs an annual awards show. These are the major awards for Britain's online and offline sex shop trade.

Here's a selection of the nominations for 2013's awards with more to follow.

Best Female Product

• G-vibe (Fun Toys)
• Hello Touch [Jimmyjane]
• Luna Beads Noir (Lelo)
• Stronic Eins (Fun Factory)
• Thrill (We-Vibe)

Best Male Product

• Cruiser Cock Ring [Perfect Fit]
• EGO [JOPEN]
• MasteRing [Screaming O]
• Revo 2 [Nexus]
• VerSpanken [Big Teaze Toys]

Best Consumable

• ID Glide [ID Lubricants]
• Liquid Gold [Liquid Gold Aromas]
• Platinum Extra Strong Aroma [Scala]
• Premium Aqua Gel [Give Lube]
• Ultimate P3 Male Virility Supplement [Ultimate]

Best Pleasure Products Brand

• California Exotic Novelties
• Lelo
• Pipedream
• Rocks-Off
• Sex & Mischief

Most Innovative Brand

• Je Joue
• JOPEN
• Lelo
• Pipedream
• We-Vibe

Best Consumable Brand

• Give Lube
• Gun Oil
• ID Lubricants
• Platinum
• Ultimate

Best Erotic Books Brand

• Arrow
• Cleis Press
• Silver Moon
• Sweetmeats Press
• Xcite Books

Best Lingerie Brand

• Coquette
• Dreamgirl
• Leg Avenue
• Seven 'til Midnight
• Shirley of Hollywood

Manchester Council licensing moralists want to automatically ban any new licence applications for sex shops or entertainment venues , saying enough is enough.

Currently there are four sex shops and seven clubs in the centre of Manchester.

A plan by the council, currently out to consultation, would see a ban on further licences being granted.

The council have obviously been legally briefed and have avoided citing moral reasons for the ban. They have opted for a claim that the market is 'saturated' and that further venues may impact the profitability and viability of existing businesses. However this is unlikely as a a complete ban would be a very inflexible way of achieving this end. If the council were genuinely considering the interests of businesses surely this would be better served with applications being considered on a case by case basis with the impact on other businesses being one of the considerations.

A report on the proposed curb vaguely speculates that:

It is considered that further sex establishments 'might' lead to a saturation of premises within the city centre.

Problems of saturation and enhanced competition 'might potentially' lead to undesirable competitive practices arising between premises.

It seems strange that the council are citing such vagueness. One would think that they would have properly researched the profitability of existing businesses before jumping to such conclusions.

Currently no sex premises are allowed outside the city centre, while those that do open must be in an appropriate location.

The proposed ban is out for public consultation until June 14.

The adult shop chain, Pulse & Cocktails, has applied to East Riding Council for a sex establishment licence to transform the former Little Chef eaterie on the westbound carriageway of the A63. The old cafe has been unused for 5 years.

But the plans have been met with scorn from civic leaders in Hull. Councillor Terry Geraghty, the Hull city council's portfolio holder for miserable culture, said with Basil Fawlty like snobbery:

We want to attract the right sort of thing to this area. We want to attract tourists and entrepreneurs as we go for 2017 UK City of Culture status. An adult store doesn't look good.

Update: Recommending Approval

14th May 2013. See  article from  thisishullandeastriding.co.uk

Only two objections have been submitted against plans to open a sex shop on the A63. A licensing application to convert a former Little Chef restaurant, near South Cave, will be heard by councillors later this month. Humberside Police has not lodged any objection to the application

In papers released ahead of the council licensing committee, both objections cite moral grounds for their opposition, although the report says moral reasons cannot be taken into consideration when deciding on any application for a sex establishment.

The report says East Riding Council's licensing officers are recommending approval.

Update: The story makes the Daily Mail

22nd May 2013. See  article from  dailymail.co.uk