A SEX shop is set to open above a Newport book shop.

The shop, selling videos and magazines, will be situated above Bookends on the corner of Dock Street and Market Street in the city centre.

Following a site visit by Newport council's licensing committee at the beginning of March, Bookends has now been granted a sex shop licence.

The first-floor shop will not be allowed to open until:

* Works to the staircase, including a door to the shop, are completed. * The windows are obscured to prevent people outside looking in. * Warning notices for the public are put up. * A police check has been carried out on the manageress.

The manager of Bookends is already included on the licence of the Private Shop, in Cardiff Road, but the licensing committee deemed it necessary to make the appropriate checks on the manageress.

A full-time member of staff will be present in the first-floor shop at all times.

The council's head of public protection and environmental services, Stephen Davison, had informed the licensing committee that several letters of objection had been received.

Mr Davison also informed them of grounds for refusal if that was the decision reached.

However, the committee voted in favour of granting the licence for the shop from 9am to 6pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and 9am to 8pm on Fridays.

The applicant told the committee that if there were complaints in future they would close the shop.