Sawtry Sex Shop Petition Handover, at Pathfinder House, (front l-r) campaigner Janie Hawkes, and from HDC Victoria Mayhew, Customer Services
One in five say NO to Sawtry sex shop
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
9:00 AM
MORE than one in five of the adult population in Sawtry has signed a petition opposing a sex shop in the village.
MORE than one in five of the adult population in Sawtry has signed a petition opposing a sex shop in the village.
A Rotherham-based chain, which trades as Pulse and Cocktails, has applied to Huntingdonshire District Council to operate from the former Little Chef building in Toll Bar Way, close to the A1(M).
On Monday, campaigner Janie Hawkes handed a 1,138-signature petition from the village – population 6,900 – to the district council.
But, in spite of calls from residents, and former county council leader Keith Walters for HDC to introduce a blanket policy to ban sex establishments before deciding the licence application, it is unlikely to happen.
There is still time for the district council’s licensing and protection panel to hold an extraordinary meeting to produce a resolution to that effect for endorsement by the full council later this month.
But the panel’s chairman, Councillor Terry Bell, said rushed law was usually bad law.
“I’m not in favour of such a ban. The company operates 20-odd of these elsewhere in the country, and I want more background from them. We should get that at the hearing.
“I’m not in favour of blanket bans, and it would seem technically wrong to rush a policy through – we are supposed to deal with each application on its merits.
“I can understand the disgruntlement, but I have not yet been out on a visit, so I haven’t taken a view. The public can be assured that we shall take the right decision.”
HDC leader Cllr Ian Bates is away and his deputy Cllr Mike Simpson said it was too early to say whether the council would adopt a blanket policy. “It needs to be considered in depth,” he said.
The deadline for comments is today (Wednesday), and the application is likely to be determined by the panel at its next scheduled meeting on October 26.
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6 comments
@Albert Hall In a word, no.
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David_Davidson
Sunday, September 12, 2010
"Sex Shop"? Isn't that what we used to call a brothel?
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Albert Hall
Friday, September 10, 2010
I need planning permission to have a wall changed in my front garden, permission to lop a tree down, have a different coloured front door, UPVc windows even special slabs for my driveway; all in the name of "preserving the character of the village". The fact that we even have to discuss the question of whether a sex shop will detract from the character of the village is plain ridiculous.
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JimmyG
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
No po-faced letters just the reality that this shop will be selling extreme R18 Hard Core Pornography & Fetish not even legal to sell on the internet, as well as normal sex toys. Sawtry residents are not prudes or bigots as some people would like to make them out to be and as tax payers for Huntingdonshire and for the Parish of Sawtry surely they have a right to have a say on what they want and need in their village. I can assure you that it is the majority that find this unacceptable and that the petition is only a small indication of the letters of objection the council will have received.The joke is that the council turned down a planning application from a national supermarket on the site (which the something that the village really needs). this would have brought in a lot more jobs to the area. But what do we get instead a "Sex Shop" that could potentially ruin the lovely village we live and for which we have no use or need for whatsoever.
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sawtryres
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Well exactly. To judge from the po-faced letters pages in our two local papers, you'd think the moral majority ruled the whole village with their so-called "family values". In fact, most people either aren't that bothered, or are quite happy to have it there. Good for them!
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Richard Flynn
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Isn't the bigger story that 4 in 5 Sawtry residents want to be able to locally source sex toys?
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AlanP
Wednesday, September 8, 2010