CLAIMS that a sex shop in Oxford could have encouraged child sex abuse were too weak to stop the shop trading, councillors decided.

Private Shop will remain open in Cowley Road – where it has been since 1981 – for at least another year after councillors extended its licence.

That is in spite of children’s charity Viva and an anonymous foster carer saying they were worried about Private Shop and shops like it encouraging sex abuse like that seen in Oxford in recent years.

At a meeting at Oxford Town Hall on Monday, a panel heard how there have been no complaints about Private Shop to Oxford City Council or to Thames Valley Police since an initial licence was handed out in 2003.

It was renewed last year and was up for another renewal on Monday.

Councillor Colin Cook, the chairman of the general purposes licensing casework sub-committee, said: “I think with the comments about the undesirability of the premises, in terms of the type of person resorting to it, the objectors didn’t really provide us with the evidence that we would need to substantiate these concerns.”

Mr Cook added: “We noted Thames Valley Police raised no objections to the application and we did not find that there had been any significant change to the locality in the last year sufficient to justify the refusal (of the shop continuing to trade).

“We note the premises are regularly visited by (council) officers to make sure they are complying with the conditions.”

The committee took just 10 minutes behind closed doors to decide they would grant the licence.

A foster carer, who has worked for Oxfordshire County Council for 18 years, said they were worried that allowing Private Shop to operate ‘would give legality to potentially unpleasant behaviour that could impact on local children and youth’.

Viva set up its Doorsteps initiative in response to sex crimes in Oxford. It wrote to the council: “These sorts of venues and shops send a message completely counter to the message we should be sending young people.

“Having such a venue in a prominent location at the heart of a community normalises a culture of exposing children and young people to overt sexual behaviour before they can fully comprehend it and be aware of the negative consequences.”

No Viva representative nor the foster carer attended the meeting on Monday.

Darker Enterprises Limited, which runs Private Shop, said they were unable to attend because of the poor weather but sent a letter to the committee instead.