The ‘Flirt’ chain of NSW adult shops has made a second attempt to establish a presence in Wagga’s Baylis Street.
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The chain, which already has six shops, including at Bathurst and Orange, has lodged a development application with Wagga City Council. The council knocked back a previous application in 2017 following objections from nearby businesses that carried substantial amounts of products aimed at children.
I think there is a big market for it
- Applicant Jeff Oliver
Bathurst-based Flirt owner Jeff Oliver told The Daily Advertiser that this time he planned to remove explicit DVDs and magazines from the proposed Wagga shop’s inventory to avoid council laws on ‘restricted premises’.
“It would sell adult retail products but not as a restricted premises store, which we are quite within our rights to do,” he said.
“We’re just opening a normal shop, basically. No DVDs, no magazines.
“There was some resistance (in 2017), which council took on board … (the application) didn't conform to their development control plan in relation to signage, security and the location wasn’t in the public interest.”
The proposed address is 190 Baylis Street between a St George Bank, a remedial massage centre and a gift shop that carries a large number of children's products near the Tompson Street intersection.
Mr Oliver said he was keen for another try at a Wagga location due to the volume of online sales.
“I think there is a big market for it and the Wagga community is screaming out for a quality adult retailer; just based on statistics from our website we do lot of business in Wagga already,” he said.
Wagga council’s local environment plan defines ‘restricted premises’ as “premises that, due to their nature, restrict access to patrons or customers over 18 years of age, and includes sex shops”.
The NSW Restricted Premises Act places additional requirements for councils for development applications for “sex related uses … of premises for the provision of adult entertainment involving nudity, indecent acts or sexual activity”.
Mr Oliver claimed that as he did not plan to sell or display material classified ‘Restricted 18+’, he would be able to operate a discrete business selling sex toys and related products.
“There are no legal requirements for us to do anything when it comes to the sale of adult pleasure products,” he said. “We will, as part of our good community expectations, make sure that children cannot see into the shop.”
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