South Holland’s Co-ops banned lads’ mags from the top shelves on Monday night after publishers refused to put them in “modesty bags”.
The move means Lincolnshire Co-operative is in line with the national Co-op, which wants stores to become more family friendly and prevent children from seeing “overt sexual images”.
Gone are Zoo, Nuts, Front and the Midweek and Sunday Sports – but Loaded stays after it agreed to cover up.
The ban sparked a mixed reaction from Spalding Guardian readers, but one fan of the outlawed mags is proud dad Kevin O’Brien (46), from Holbeach, as his daughter Rosy (21) is a Page 3 girl.
Kevin said: “I quite like Zoo, to be honest, my daughter’s a model in it. She does Page 3 for the Daily Star and she’s been in Nuts.”
He says Rosy loves modelling, he doesn’t mind men looking at her pictures and there’s “far stronger stuff” on the shelves.
June Murray, from Spalding, says it’s up to the individual what they buy, but shops could be more discreet with their displays for the sake of children.
Rose O’Hara, from Holbeach, said: “Children should not be exposed to these sexual images. It’s a free country if people choose to buy these magazines, but they should be out of the way where children can’t reach.”
Pauline Seymour, from Pinchbeck, doesn’t mind the lads’ mags, but thought the Co-op’s move was a good idea so far as children are concerned.
“When you have got young children, you don’t want them seeing it,” she said.
Father of three Ben Coaten, from Spalding, supports the ban and says his son William (3) asked questions after seeing the mags.
“I told him they are magazines you shouldn’t be looking at,” he said.
Peter Slater, from Gosberton, backs the Co-op ban says the images are a “distraction”.
l Spalding News bosses Asgar Vanparekh and Abbas Laxmidhar put lads’ mags on high shelves with images of scantily clad women hidden behind other magazines.