The owners of a Shrewsbury sex shop which has been operating for 18 months without a licence have now launched a fresh bid to expand their business.

Peter Hughes and Mark Haines, owners of the S X Warehouse in Harlescott, have applied for a full sex shop licence to sell explicit R-18 DVDs and videos.

It comes after Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council scrapped tough rules which banned new sex shops from opening.

Mr Hughes today said the new licence, if granted, would allow the store to sell adult films.

“The licence was never granted before and that’s obviously changed with the new rules,” he said.

“It will mean we can offer more choice, because we haven’t got any videos at all at the moment. You can never be confident over the licence, but we’ve got more chance of getting one now.”

At present the shop operates under the same rules as well-known party stores such as Ann Summers.

In October 2005 the S X Warehouse was refused a sex shop licence. The licensing and safety committee refused to overturn a law which permitted only one sex shop to operate in the borough.

But on Thursday the council voted to scrap the regulations. The licensing committee will now look at each application on its own merits.

Councillor Judith Williams, head of the licensing committee, said: “At the moment S X Warehouse has only got mail order sex videos. It’s exactly the same thing only people will be going in to buy over the counter.”

In 2004 S X Warehouse was granted a provisional licence, providing the council agreed to change its policy, but that did not happen until last week.