A CHURCH leader has criticised a Knutsford town councillor over comments he made about brothels in Crewe.

The Rev Rob Wykes defended his town after Clr George Walton said men seeking sex should go to Crewe not look for an outlet in Knutsford.

"He was wrong to point to another area," said Mr Wykes.

"Anyway, the Queen has just bought her second car from the area so she must think it's okay."

Earlier this month Clr Walton welcomed the closure of a brothel in King Street, saying: 'If people want that type of thing they can find it in places like Crewe and Warrington.'

The King Street massage parlour had been exposed as a sex shop during an undercover investigation the Guardian.

During a half-hour session, a reporter was offered sex five times by a Swedish blonde in a room at a flat in King Street after paying £60. Last week police detectives said they would not press charges against the owner of the massage parlour.

Clr Walton's comments were made after landlord Barrie Bloom revealed that the tenants of 109A King Street had been evicted.

But Mr Wykes, who works for Crewe Christian Concern, said the councillor's remarks were unreasonable.

"He may have been right to say he didn't want them in Knutsford," he said.

"But it's not fair for a person to say they should come here." Controversy is currently mounting in Crewe over proposals to open a Simply Pleasure sex shop in the town.

"It is true to say that little things go on at the moment," said Mr Wykes.

"But the people of Crewe are very prideful and when suggestions of this new shop were made they objected in their hundreds."

Yesterday George Walton defended his comments, but he also said Crewe was a fine place. "Last week the Guardian featured an article where a detective Burt said there are lots of these types of places in the town. There are enough implications of what is going on in Crewe. But I have been shopping there and I don't doubt that it is a delightful place."