A firm of printers has refused to publish a Sussex student newspaper after a sex column was deemed too raunchy.

In a letter to The Badger, the University of Sussex's newspaper, West Country Design and Print said it regarded the column as "in bad taste".

Editor Nick Scott, 21, said he was surprised they could consider the piece, called Sex With Lucia Lambrini, too explicit and added: "It is totally harmless. The whole thing has struck us as absolutely ridiculous.

"The column has a mild Mills and Boon eroticism about it but it strikes me as a strange fight to pick. Printers are there to print and not to pass moral judgement. We have never had any complaints about the column before."

Lucy Corkhill, 22, an English Literature student who writes the column, said: "It's a joke. It's always tongue-in-cheek and the pictures are cartoons. We're all adults and can make decisions for ourselves."

Nick said the paper tried to modify the content but the printers still refused.

Robert Jones, Communications Officer for the university students' union, said: "The paper has gone through 23 executive officers who represent the students and no one has said anything about it before."

In a letter, the Exeter-based company said the decision was purely theirs, adding: "We are entirely within our rights not to print."It declined to comment further.