OUTWARDLY they look nothing special. You could easily walk straight past without a clue as to what lies beyond the mirrored glass shop window.

The restrictions on sex shops are many and stringently enforced. A store selling pornographic material must be licensed by the local authority. It cannot openly advertise its products, nor can it open its doors to anyone under the age of 18.

Once just the preserve of the dirty raincoat brigade, sex shops are on the verge of going mainstream.

They have gained in popularity since August 1999 when the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) lost its attempt to prevent hard-core movies being sold through properly licensed premises.

Today, Britain's licensed sex shops sell more than 400,000 videos every year, along with a mountain of magazines, books, sex aids and lingerie.

Two weeks ago, Provincial Enterprises of Leeds was granted a licence to open a shop in Darlington.

The borough council's decision to allow the first new sex shop in 20 years to open in the town was met with outrage.

More than 100 people wrote to complain about the proposal and many attended a council meeting to protest.

With just 110,000 residents, Darlington is far from being a major city, but with the opening of the new business in Bondgate, the town now has three licensed and one unlicensed sex shop - more than any other town in the region and only equalled by York - a city with 177,000 residents.

Unlicensed sex shops can sell some sex aids, as long as most of their stock is lingerie and other clothing. Licensed shops can trade in magazines, books and videos.

*icensing committee member and Conservative councillor Bill Stenson, who is opposing the new development, believes the proliferation of sex shops tarnishes the town's image.

He said: "We are a traditional Quaker town with Quaker values. I feel very strongly about this. I think one is enough."

Other councillors want more stringent regulations.

But Provincial Enterprises is undeterred. A solicitor acting for the company said it would have opened its new shop as an unlicensed business if necessary.

One thing that undoubtedly attracts the sex industry to the town is the cost of a licence - just £360 a year compared with £10,000 in Stockton and £5,000 in Newcastle.

A Darlington Borough Council spokeswoman said the authority could not look at the moral issues, adding: "We follow Home Office guidelines with all matters relating to sex shops and we regularly review our policies.

"Visits are made to the two sex shops already operating in the town and there have never been any problems."

Glamour model Helen Benoist said last night that most modern-day sex shops were far removed from the seedy image of their 1970s counterparts.

The 22-year-old, from Newcastle, who has bared all for Page Three as well as writing a column in the past for The Northern Echo, said: "Maybe people in Darlington are raunchy and they have a need for another sex shop.

" A lot of couples use them, including myself and my boyfriend - in fact, people from all walks of life. Such shops are supplying a demand, I don't see there is a problem, they are part of life."

However, the town's sex boom may soon be over. So many concerns have been raised that the licensing committee plans to discuss in the autumn limiting the number of shops.

* The Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre in Darlington would like to point out that it operates from a confidential address and will not be based at the new doctor's surgery which is moving to the former Blacketts pub in Bondgate, close to the proposed new sex shop.

How the region fares

DARLINGTON: Three licensed, one unlicensed. A licence costs £360

NEWCASTLE: One licensed. Cost per licence is £5,000

MIDDLESBROUGH: One licensed. Cost is £3,700

DURHAM: No shops. A licence would cost £8,000

YORK: Three shops. Licences cost up to £8,766

STOCKTON: No shops. A licence costs £10,000.

There are also guidelines which state that no sex shops should be within a one-mile radius of the town centre or three miles of any school, church, youth club, library or community centre.

How times have changed after very moral beginnings

THE origin of the Quaker religion in Darlington goes back to the 1600s.

It has been said that no greater moral change has ever passed over a nation than passed over England during the period of the Civil War when the Quakers came to prominence.

Although the religion is now associated with peace, when it first appeared in the town the Quakers, also known as Friends, were part of an army, albeit of pacifists, which included religious revolutionaries and freedom fighters.

Around the 1650s, the Quakers started to meet in and around Darlington in secret.

Meetings were held in members' homes and even barns, as worshippers feared that they would be found and punished for breaking away from the recognised Church.

Those who were found could be fined and have goods and livestock taken from them, others were imprisoned, tortured and died for their moral beliefs.

The Quakers in the Darlington area first met in Cotherstone, at farmland close to what is now Grange Road and Victoria Road.

In 1678, they bought land in Skinnergate and this is the site of the modern Quaker Meeting House.

Quakers soon became a major part of everyday life in the town, thanks to the wealthy and influential Pease family, who were also instigators in bringing the railway to Darlington.

Both Darlington Memorial Hospital, as it is now known, and the Crown Street library, formerly the Edward Pease library, were founded by Quakers, and the country's first Quaker MP and member of the House of Lords both came from Darlington.