A Christian group which claimed a sex shop could attract sexual offenders into the borough has failed in its bid to stop the establishment renewing its licence.

Twickenham Christian Concern claimed the Private Shop, in Kew Road, Richmond, may be encouraging undesirable people to visit the residential area, near the Falcons Preparatory School for Boys.

However, Richmond Council’s licensing sub-committee said on Wednesday, February 29, that it had no evidence this was true and it could not make its judgement based on the group’s moral objections.

Rosemary Jarvis, of Twickenham Christian Concern, said: “It could well be undesirable people are coming to the shop which we perhaps prefer not to have in our borough.

“I could show you pictures from the papers of people who police have arrested because they’ve committed certain sexual crimes.

“I know you can’t necessarily prove that because there’s a sex shop in the vicinity that person has been into the sex shop and therefore committed that crime, but people concerned about sexual crime feel vulnerable when there’s a sex shop or anything of that nature.”

Clive Sullivan, a management consultant for the Private Shop, said none of its products were illegal or harmful to customers.

He told the committee: “The mere fact people don’t like a sex shop is not a ground on which you can refuse. Parliament has decided sex shops can exist, what it has done is given you the power to control those establishments.”

Councillor Brian Miller, of the licensing sub-committee, said no neighbours of the Private Shop or the police had complained about it since the authority first granted it a licence in 2005.

But the meeting heard 86 per cent of respondents to a council survey in 2010 said they did not want any sex shops in the borough.

The committee granted the Private Shop’s application to renew its licence because it said it had no grounds to refuse.