Sex Shops in the South West

A christian nutter group is challenging the licensing of Truro's first licensed sex shop which opened its doors for the first time last weekend.

Campaigners won a case to secure a judicial review of Cornwall Council's decision to grant the licence.

And the council has said it will not defend the legal challenge, which could see Mrs Palm Ltd shut if the case goes ahead.

City councillor Armorel Carlyon and the Christian Institute launched action in the High Court, claiming procedures were not followed correctly at the original hearing when the licence was granted in August.

The issue is believed to centre on two key elements of the hearing. The first was the decision to disregard many of the letters of objection on the grounds that they focused on the morality of the shop.

The second was that the committee did not take into sufficient account the location of the sex shop, which is next door to school outfitters Trevails in Little Castle Street.

A council spokesman said: The council, having considered the matter carefully, has decided not to contest the judicial review. How the interested party, Mrs Palm Limited, decides to proceed in these circumstances is a matter for them.

Simon Calvert, deputy director of the Christian Institute who led its campaign against the shop's licence, said: The decision by the council not to contest the case reflects the strength of our case.

The move by Cornwall Council not to defend the licensing committee's decision surprised Mrs Palm's directors. Owner Braxton Reynolds said: As a licensee I would have expected Cornwall Council to have defended the position of their licensee.

The case will now go before a judge who will decide if there are enough grounds to grant the review. If given approval then a judicial review will probably be heard late next year.

In the meantime, however, a licensing committee hearing has allowed the premises to extend its hours for late night Christmas shopping. It will now be allowed to open until 9.30pm every Wednesday – three hours later than normal under the terms of the original licence. Councillors also agreed it could include the street number and drop the word Ltd from its sign but drew the line at replacing it with a website address.

Let's put Christ back into Christmas

Mrs Palm
5 Little Castle Street
Truro
TR1 3DL

This my shop Mrs Palm in Truro on the busy shopping day of Saturday 27th November and along comes the catholic church to block my window and tell people untrue rumours that myself and my shop were involved in the recent child sex abuse case in Cornwall that is all over the news.

The Christian Institute will not give up their attempt to see me shut down, and now I have the Catholic Church harassing on a nearly daily basis.

The nun pictured came into the shop the day before to tell me I was disgusting and so was the shop.

The week before I had a cross drawn on the window and photos taken of my window display of which I was told by the church member taking the shots that my window dummies were prostitutes. The photos they took were then on the Cornwall council's desk that same morning, with a complaint.

I put a sign in my window saying Mrs Palm licensed sex shop opening soon and was told to take it out as it offended the church, and then told by the licensing committee that I would not be allowed to display my website address on my shop fascia because of the church!

I had one hundred letters of objections, all of which were unfounded moralising and completely bigoted.

I have been told by letter that I am obviously a ex porn star druggie that has been abused by black men....

So not a day goes by without a little drama..

Out of every negative there comes a positive though, and since I seem to hit the local paper every week its created a lot of support form strangers, it's bringing in the customers through all the furore, curiosity and it's getting me lots of free publicity.

All good for business.

Hallelujah.