Sex shop licence fees drop 40pc in Shropshire

Shropshire Council's fees and charges for 2014/15 has included a 42 per cent reduction in the cost of applying for a sex establishment licence, with the cost of renewing the licence due to fall by 43 per cent.

It means the fee for a first time application will drop from £2,025 to £1,159, with a renewal falling from £1,755 to £997.

Councillors questioned the reduction, saying they were surprised at the cut at a time when fees for things such as pest control were going up.

Councillor Jean Jones said: "While sex shop licences are going down, there are huge rises in the treatment of rats. It seems to be an odd vision of our society."

But Councillor Steve Charmley, cabinet member for business growth, said the council had no choice to reduce the fees in line with national guidelines following a recent test case in London.

"This brings it in line with national policy," he said.

In May, Westminster City Council lost a Court of Appeal ruling on sex shop licence fees after being the subject of a judicial review last year brought against them by seven owners of 13 sex shops in Soho and Covent Garden.

The case established a principle that councils that profit from licence fees for sex shops must carry the surplus forward when determining the fees for future years.

Since 2005, Westminster had charged owners £29,102, using the funds in part to clamp down on illegal shops.

But the Court of Appeal ruled that the council had been overcharging.

Speaking after the verdict, Philip Kolvin QC, who represented the shop owners, said: "The judgment will limit the scope of fees which licensing authorities will be able to charge under the Licensing Act 2003, following the right to determine fees introduced by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011."