ANGRY parents have vowed to fight a council's decision to allow a sex shop to open near a residential area.

Plans to open the shop were given the go-ahead by Middlesbrough Council's licensing committee on Monday.

But yesterday, residents said they were shocked that permission had been given for the store, in Linthorpe Road, to open.

Mum Andrea Ginty, secretary of nearby Granville Road residents' group A New Era, said they would appeal against the decision.

"We've got enough smackheads in the area, we don't need perverts hanging about," she said.

"It's not something that you want in a residential area. I have got a five-year-old son and there are more than 200 children in Granville Road. How can they put something like that at the bottom of the road when there are that many children?"

The town has had a sex shop in Borough Road for almost 20 years and an Ann Summers store recently opened in the main shopping area.

Miss Ginty, 25, said residents felt that was enough. "We were assured by ward councillors that a town could only have one sex shop. Why do we need another?

"We have been told that as it's a fetish shop, they won't have to have the windows blacked out. Children going past will be able to see everything in the window display."

Four ward councillors and local forum Gresham Community Council also objected to the plan, which was submitted by Leeds-based Provincial Enterprises.

Keith Mitchell, from the company, said the shop, which will sell sex clothing and toys, would not be called Fetish Forum or Adult X because the committee objected to those names. A list of alternative names will be discussed by councillors on August 5.

Licensing committee chairman Councillor Arthur Lancaster said members felt the shop would not cause problems. "It's not going to be in a place where it's going to be obtrusive. It's going to be very discreet."

A New Era will meet tonight at 6.30pm at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Granville Road to discuss the decision