Quote:
Westminster City Council in sex shops court battleA local authority is battling against a controversial ruling that stripped it of the right to use licence fee income to curb illegal sex shops in the capital.Westminster City Council, backed by 15 other councils from across the country, today launched a Court of Appeal application expected to be of widespread importance.
The council is challenging a High Court declaration that a European directive does not permit the licence fees paid by legitimate sex shop proprietors to include the cost of enforcement against unlicensed shops.
Good for the sex shops - I hope they win. Sex shops should not have to hand over ruinous fees so that the council can persecute unlicensed shops. Apart from anything else, it's a barrier to trade.
That said, I'm not actually sure why we have to have licences for sex shops in the first place. Similarly, I think that the 'R18' category should be ditched and people should be allowed to sell whatever they want pornography wise without having to go through the BBFC, as long as it's within the law. That's another barrier to trade that can easily be scrapped.
15 Jan 2013, 9:54 pm
