PLANS to open a sex shop next to a future counselling centre for victims of sexual abuse in Darlington have come under fire from a GP.

Leeds-based company Principal Enterprises, which owns several adult shops in the UK, has applied for permission to open a sex shop on the corner of Bondgate and Four Riggs.

The vacant shop is only feet away from Blacketts pub - set to be the new site of Netherlaw surgery and medical centre, complete with a rape counselling unit.

The five-GP practice was unaware of the plans for the sex shop until this week.

Dr Andrew Michie, GP at the practice for 15 years, said the proposal was in very bad taste.

He told the D&S Times: "I believe people have the right to establish and run regulated businesses of this type but it is very bad taste to site it next to a rape counselling unit, close to a town centre and near a Methodist church.

"I will be discussing it with the other partners soon with the intention of sending the council a formal written objection."

Objections have also been made by the minister of Bondgate Methodist Church and nearby shop owners.

The Rev Alan Coates, minister at Bondgate Methodist Church, said: "Bondgate is a nice area. As a church we would oppose it totally.

"It would be in the centre of the town, where young families and children would see it when they walk past it."

Susan Jackson, owner of Jackson's newsagents next door to the proposed site, said: "There is only a small minority of people who want that sort of shop.

"Customers have told me there are already two or three in the town centre so they are already very well catered for."

Licensed sex shops exist in Victoria Road, North Road and Grange Road.

An application for the sex shop licence will be heard at a meeting of the council's licensing committee on May 15.