A sex shop has finally got an official licence - making it the second of its type in the same Colchester road.
On Tuesday night Colchester Council's licensing and appeals committee granted Jon Morss a sex establishment licence to open the Adult Private Shop at 67 Butt Road - "almost opposite" The Private Shop at 74-76 Butt Road.
The meeting heard of objections from residents, who feared a second sex shop would turn the area into a "mini Soho".
But Mr Morss, 29, of Station Road, Clacton, told members he had already been running an unlicensed sex shop at the rented premises for four years.
As such it could, along with other goods, carry a small proportion of adult material for which no licence was needed.
The shop closed in January, pending the licence application, and Mr Morss dismissed concerns from residents.
"If I am granted a licence it will not create a new sex shop. I am already there and have been for four years," he said.
"My shop has been selling adult material and if a mini Soho was going to spring up it would have done so in the last four years. It hasn't yet."
By Lisa Cockrell
Reporter's e-mail: lisa_cockrell@thisisessex.co.uk
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