A sex shop could be opened less than 50 yards from a Salvation Army Hall on a road linking two junior schools.

Families in quiet Barrington Road, Horsham, are furious after a poster announcing "Adult Shop Coming Soon" was placed in the window of what used to be a family-run butchers.

Ministers from the Salvation Army in Depot Road have already started a petition against the planned store and families are worried about the impact on their children.

Two nearby schools, St Leonards Infant School in Oxford Road, and Chesworth Junior School in Kings Road, are due to merge in the summer, with Barrington Road a regular route used between the two.

Mother Julia Knight said: "I've got two children and with the primary schools merging several hundred children will be walking past the shop every day.

"How do I explain to my kids what an adult shop is? Most people in this road have children. It's unacceptable."

Signs saying "No to the Adult Shop" litter windows, doors, fence posts and pylons of the genteel street where children regularly play after school.

A similar poster is emblazoned at the front of the Salvation Army Hall.

Captain Catherine Rand said: "This type of shop is not suitable for a totally residential area where children are walking to and from school every day and within a stone's throw of a church."

Horsham District Council has told the shop's owner Peter Everitt he would have to apply for a licence to run a sex shop. So far officers have not received one.

However, councillors are powerless to stop him on planning grounds as he already has permission to operate a shop at the site.

Neighbour Margaret Eden said: "It's awful, we're all up in arms about it. It's absolutely terrible.

"I don't object to shops like that but not in a residential area. With all the children playing around here it's a very bad influence. We're worried about people roaming around, wanting to use it late at night. It will affect property prices too."

Once popular family butchers LH Mills Jnr until Mr Mills retired, the store briefly became an electrician's and a boiler shop.

But it was lying vacant before the Adult Shop sign was displayed across its front two weeks ago.

Neighbour Charlotte Morrow said: "I'm not in favour of it in a residential street. I haven't any children but kids walk down here all the time on their way to school - they'll be walking straight past it.

"Now when you tell people you live here they give you this shocked look."

There will be a meeting in the Salvation Army Hall on Monday at 7pm to discuss the shop.

Mr Everitt was unavailable to comment.