A TOWN centre sex shop has had its licence renewed for a further 12 months.

An application made by the Private Shop, in St George’s Road, was unanimously approved by Bolton Council’s licensing and environment regulation committee when it met at the town hall yesterday.

The shop, which first opened in September 1998, is owned by Darker Enterprises Ltd, an Essex-based ‘adult entertainment’ firm which has 60 outlets nationwide.

Shops owned by the chain can be found in town and cities across the UK, including Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Colwyn Bay and Wakefield.

Director David Brown welcomed councillors’ decision to grant a renewal of the licence.

He said: “We are pleased to hear that Bolton Council have granted a sex shop licence to the Private Shop in St Georges Road. “The company have been there for twenty years and provide a valuable service to the community and look forward to continuing to supply the adult public of Bolton a wide range of goods.“ Committee member Cllr Nick Peel said he had no concerns over the sex shop continuing to trade on the outskirts of the town centre.

He said: "Nobody made any objections and we would refuse something like that if it was generating anti-social behaviour problems for neighbouring businesses. It's not in a residential area, it's on the periphery of the town centre, and it's been there for as long as I can remember.

"It's an established business, it isn't a new application for somewhere on Newport Street, we would probably look at that very differently."

No one from Darker Enterprises spoke at the meeting.

However, the firm did request that the decision be deferred if members wanted refuse the renewal so it could to submit information in support of the application.

The most recent full accounts viewable on the Companies House website show that the firm made a gross profit of more than £7.5m in 2015, but a net loss of £277,970.