IT WAS an announcement that caused a stir in Wallingford, a sex shop was opening up in the former launderette on the High Street.

The signs outside the boarded-up shop appeared at the weekend.

But the proclaimed opening day of April 1 was probably a clue to the danger of the genteel shopping street becoming the home of an adult-themed store.

By Monday the sign had gone and Wallingford Mayor Bernard Stone said: “It is just somebody having a bit of mischief. They would have to apply for a licence and you are not going to get that, not in Wallingford.

He joked: “Setting up a sex shop in a town like Wallingford I would not have thought would be a very profitable business.”

The launderette shut last year and has permission to be turned into a house.