A flower shop owner says she will quit if a sex shop opens nearby.

Jackie Adsett, owner of Flowers In The Window, Rowlands Road, Worthing, said people were devastated after plans for the shop were unveiled.

St Leonards firm Shop Tonight Ltd wants to open the business in a former electrical store which has been empty for several years.

But Mrs Adsett said: "If it does get permission, I am going to pack my bags and go. We are trying to get this area up and coming, not the other way.

"A sex shop is all we need.

I thought the idea was to bring this area up-market. I have been here three years and we have tried so hard to make it nice around here.

"Most people are devastated. We want something in the area that people need."

Councillor Paul High, who represents the Heene ward, said: "I think it is a totally inappropriate area to put an establishment like that.

"I would strongly hope the council's licensing committee would not approve it."

Steve Stevens, who lives several hundred yards away in Rowlands Road, campaigned to stop a sex shop opening in Tarring Road, Worthing.

He said: "We shall fight this tooth and nail just as we did the previous one."

Worthing Town Centre Initiative has in recent years been spearheading a campaign to improve the Montague Street-Rowlands Road area, known as the West End.

Thousands of pounds have been spent on hanging baskets, signs and seating.

Councillor Tom Wye, in charge of licensing, said protesters could send their views to the council for consideration.

He said there were four factors councillors had to follow when deliberating: prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, prevention of public nuisance and protection of children from harm.

Coun Wye said he had never been in a sex shop and wasn't surprised people were objecting but he added: "There must be a demand for it because it is a commercial enterprise."

When a sex shop opened in Victoria Road, Worthing, almost 20 years ago, there were demonstrations by placard-waving moral standards campaigners outside.

The shop eventually closed after potential customers were put off by the level of public protest.

Adult goods were later sold from a unit on the East Worthing Trading Estate but that business also closed.

Several shops in the town centre now sell adult goods discreetly from upstairs rooms but do not need licences because it is a sideline to their main trade.

Kathleen Sutton, director of Shop Tonight, which has outlets in Eastbourne, Hastings and St Leonards, said the shop would open whether it was licensed by the council or not.

A licence simply meant the shop could sell a wider range of products, including more explicit DVDs, behind a frosted-glass front window.

But even without council permission, they could still display adult products such as clothes, toys, soft-porn magazines and DVDs.

Miss Sutton said the shop would be very tasteful rather than sleazy and warned protesters: "I hope they have got ten years to stand outside with their placards."

Monday, October 17, 2005