Go-ahead given for sex shop warehouse

11:12am Tuesday 10th July 2007

SEX shops must not be allowed to appear in North Weald, councillors have warned after a licence was granted for a mail order warehouse on the outskirts of the village.

Epping Forest District Council's licensing sub-committee has given the green light to a mail order sex warehouse run by Shazad Ahmed at a business unit at Chase Farm. Vicarage Lane, on the grounds that it will not be open to the public.

District councillor Dave Stallan initially objected to the application but conceded he was happy for the establishment to operate so long as it remained a warehouse only.

He said: "I'm concerned about vehicle movements and I would be looking at the number of trucks or lorries that will be coming and going. It's a warehouse so you're obviously going to have them coming and making deliveries on a route some children use on their way to primary school."

But apart from this Mr Stallan was satisfied the application and conditions met his concerns.

No one aged under 18 will be allowed to work at the warehouse, videos supplied from the premises must meet standards set by the British Board of Film Classification, and no part of the inside of the premises shall be visible to passers-by.

Mr Stallan said he would be keeping an eye on further applications because he did not want sex shops to spring up in the village.

He added: "Obviously the warehouse is based outside the centre of the village which is very different to having such an establishment in our midst. As long as they take on our concerns about vehicle movements then I don't have an issue with it. This is just a warehouse and an actual sex shop is something very different. I don't want people walking into a shop to buy these kind of goods.

"We've already had a sex shop in Epping Forest and I would have a very different set of concerns if an application came up for a sex shop in North Weald that people can just walk into."