RAUNCHY rear-view drawings of women are offensive and could lead to road accidents, says a Wiltshire council which has banned their display in Tidworth.

Chris Thomas, who owns the Fun and Fantasy business in Pennings Road, Tidworth, has met officials from Kennet District Council’s environmental health and licensing departments.

They said the eight-inch high ladies had to go or he would lose his licence to trade.

Chris, 52, is bemused by the ruling and says he has not received any complaints from the public and cannot believe that the drawings are a traffic hazard.

However, in a letter the district council said it had been in contact with the county highways department who confirmed that the sign would be “a distraction to motorists on an approach to a junction by virtue of its unusualness in the public realm”.

It would, claimed the council, “lead to motorists’ attention being taken away from the road at a critical point in the network”.

But Chris said: “If any motorist has an accident because of these signs it is because they aren’t driving with due care and attention.

“What are they going to ban next?

“Motorists can be distracted by a display in a shop window or a girl in a mini-skirt – are they going to ban them?”

He adds that far more sexually explicit pictures are sometimes blown up and displayed 20ft high on billboards without any danger to public morals.

The matter was discussed at Tidworth Town Council as a council member had received complaints and passed them on to the district council.

Paul Evans, a town councillor who runs a nearby business, said: “It is the back view of a lady and I would suppose my grandmother has seen worse than that.”