DEFIANT businessmen have today vowed they will continue their quest to open a sex shop in a sleepy Suffolk village.They were so confident of success from the council that they had already put up the signs for the new shop!Councillors quashed the application at a meeting yesterday but the trio behind it say they are refusing to take it lying down.

DEFIANT businessmen have today vowed they will continue their quest to open a sex shop in a sleepy Suffolk village.

They were so confident of success from the council that they had already put up the signs for the new shop!

Councillors quashed the application at a meeting yesterday but the trio behind it say they are refusing to take it lying down.

Jeremy Ellis, of Campsea Ash, said: "The wrong decision was made yesterday and we will certainly be appealing against it.

"In the meantime we will be opening a mail order business from the site anyway. The existing classification of use is described as storage and distribution and that is what we will be doing."

Suffolk Coastal's north area development control sub-committee rejected the application on a number of grounds.

The change from industrial use to retail goes against the village's local plan. Noise and fear of crime were also given as valid reasons for refusal.

Mr Ellis and his fellow applicants Vic Brand and John Mitchell, had already angered residents by erecting signs on the building on Tuesday evening - before the application was even decided.

Their latest declaration is bound to strike fear into the hearts of villagers who hoped they had seen the end of the ordeal.

Suffolk Coastal District Council has confirmed, however, that if the trio do open as a mail order business they will be in breech of planning law.

Ivan Jowers, chairman of the committee said: "There does appear to be some confusion among the gallery following today's decision.

"We were asked by the applicant to agree to a change of use that would enable the unit to be legally used partly as a shop.

"We firmly rejected that proposal, but we have not been asked and therefore not given any formal view on whether they can operate from the premises as a mail order only business."

But a council spokesman admitted there may not be anything the council can do about the signs. He said: "There is no planning law that says you can't put up a sign making a false claim. They could have signs up even if the shop wasn't actually there.

"The only way in which they could breach the law would be if they were above the specified size.

"If they were found to be too big action could be taken to force the owners to remove them."