OUTRAGED residents have mounted a campaign against the opening of a "paradise for swingers" on their doorstep.

They were reacting to plans, revealed first in The Northern Echo, to open The Love Shack in the converted King's Head Hotel, in Stanley, County Durham.

The venue is being hailed by its owners as the biggest of its kind in the region and already has 200 potential customers on its books.

But residents plan to raise a petition and said they would protest outside the building if it opens as planned on October 31.

One neighbour said: "It is a disgrace. I have a 14-year-old daughter who gets off her bus opposite the building every day. She is at an impressionable age and was too frightened to walk past the building after hearing the news today. We just do not want it here."

Planning chiefs have said they are probably powerless to stop the club from opening.

Peter Reynolds, head of environmental services at Derwentside District Council, said last night: "We are taking legal advice both from a planning and licensing perspective. At the moment, there are no breaches of planning control as premises are not up and running. If we decide to take any action it will only be once they get started."

The authority has up to six staff dedicated to the issue, fielding a number of "very irate" calls about the four-storey building, which will include nine themed rooms and two bondage dungeons.

A spokesman for Archer and Rostron, the company behind the venture, said last night: "We have all the planning permission we need and have stuck strictly to all the rules. If there are any rules we have not covered, we would like to know, because we do not want to break any."