Opposition is growing to an application for a sex shop in Brentwood, as a campaign led by the Brentwood Gazette gathers pace.

Church leaders, school teachers and residents are worried about the effect on children who pass the site twice daily on their way to and from the railway station.

The Gazette is urging people to lodge formal objections and has printed a ready-made objection form that readers can use.

The paper devoted three pages and its editorial comment column to the issue last week, interviewing residents and influential locals – and sending a reporter to investigate inside a London sex shop.

Three more pages were carried in this week’s edition, including a statement from the company that wants to open the new store, Bright Lights Leisure.

Licences for sex shops cannot be opposed in general terms or on simple moral grounds and a case has to be made against each individual application, based on the locality and any impact it may have there.

Gazette editor Roger Watkins said: “It’s not a case of where we would want one – we don’t want it at all.

“I don’t think any family newspaper could come out and say ‘that’s alright’.

“We believe there are good reasons to oppose one here – we’ve made the point that there are dozens of sex shops around: there is one 11 miles away in Chelmsford and a good run could take customers to Soho in 45 minutes.

“Why do we need one here?”

The company involved said it was a professional organisation, running “far from seedy, tasteful boutiques”.

They added that they were completely inoffensive from the outside, with blacked-out windows, and regulation by means of a council licence would ensure business was carried out in the proper manner.

There is a November 13 deadline for objections and the council is set to make a decision on December 1, so the story will run and run.

Roger is planning to identify the councillors who will have to make the decision, and see if what they say reflects the groundswell of public opinion forming around the application.

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