A CHRISTIAN charity yesterday lost its legal battle to prevent a "fair of erotica" taking place this weekend.

The Christian Institute, in Newcastle, had brought judicial review proceedings in a bid to halt the three-day event, organised by a company called Xsensual, at the city's Telewest Arena on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The charity claimed that Newcastle City Council's decision, on August 7, to grant Xsensual a sex establishment licence amounted to a delegation of its licensing function to a private company.

At the same time, the council knew, says the charity, that Xsensual planned to hire out stalls to third parties.

Its counsel, Charles Holland, said that the authority had "essentially washed its hands" of the normal vetting procedure and handed it over wholesale to Xsensual.

"The fundamental point is that a council cannot delegate its authority to a third party.

"We would contend that you cannot have a licence that covers the activities of third parties under that licence."

Rejecting the application, Mr Justice Collins, at the High Court in London, said that he was satisfied that what the council had done, including putting 33 conditions on the licence, was lawful.

The judge heard that there were no police objections to the event, and that similar fairs had been held in London without any problems.

The Institute was ordered to pay the costs of the hearing and refused leave to appeal.