Fees for sex shop licences in Warwick district may rise to £3,500.

The district council's executive last week discussed the possibility of increasing the fee - which is currently 795 - in order to cover the costs of regular inspections and possible prosecutions.

Coun Bill Gifford (Lib Dem, Leamington Milverton) said: "It's not a case of us trying to take money off the sex shops, it's about making sure their activities are not subsidised by the ordinary tax payer."

It was decided at the council meeting on December 4 that further research needed to be done into the appropriate level of funding before a decision could be reached.

Although there are currently no licensed sex shops in the district, members of the council's licensing committee and trading standards officers seized more than 100 pornographic DVDs from Private in High Street in October. The films were being sold without a sex shop licence.