POLICE were today investigating whether a steamy afternoon sex show staged in a pub in the shadow of Blackburn Cathedral broke the law.

Drinkers watched as a stripper peeled off her nurse's uniform before writhing with a half-naked customer she had covered in baby oil at the town centre Boulevard pub near Blackburn Railway Station.

Today, as church and council leaders attacked the show, the landlady of the pub promised to pull the plug on the event until she found out if her licence covered the raunchy acts.

A police spokesman said they were investigating whether an offence involving outrage to public decency had occurred at the Railway Road pub.

Jeff Stone, who represents Darwen Street traders, said he was baffled as to why a town undergoing regeneration was staging such shows.

He said: "I am horrified. This is an indicator of where Blackburn is tending to go. It's all part of the decline.

"If Blackburn wants to be the new Las Vegas then ok, but I think the authorities should look into it.

"It needs policing."

Posters advertising "Exotic dancers, 4pm" went up in the windows of the pub at lunchtime and by late afternoon the pub was full.

Inside, punters saw a dancer strip from her nurse's uniform before covering a drinker in baby oil and cream.

She then performed an act which involved molten wax and touched herself intimately. The woman had previously danced a full-frontal strip. She was followed quarter of an hour later by another stripper.

A spokesman for Blackburn Cathedral slammed the show. He said the performers were vulnerable people being exploited for commercial reasons.

He said: "Happily the first thing people leaving the pub will see will be the new circular sculpture on the side of the cathedral.

'With its gently pulsing beams of ever-changing light it will preach about God's design for a town where all people enjoy love, respect and equal status.

"This is, perhaps, in sharp contrast to the commercial exploitation of some vulnerable people in our town today."

The police spokesman said they had been informed of a performance at The Boulevard and they were investigating whether there had been an outrage to public decency or a licensing offence.

Councillor Bill Taylor, the new leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said he had asked for an investigation into the licensing question by town hall officers.

"It looks as if things might have got out of hand," he added.

The licensee of The Boulevard, Andrea Bennett, said the Friday event had been fun and very popular and she was planning more.

But she claimed she did not know whether she needed a licence to stage the shows and until she did they would stop.

She said: "It was my first week last week and I didn't realise I might have needed a licence, I thought that would be down to the girls themselves.

"I'm sorry people are complaining and I have contacted the council to see whether I need a licence to stage the shows and there won't be any more until I've found out what I need to do. I don't want to get into trouble."

A spokesman for Thwaites, who own The Boulevard, said: "We are not aware of any complaint. Obviously, the business is leased out and the businesswoman who runs it does so in her own way.

"We have no issue while ever she is operating within the licensing laws and the laws of the land.

"These kinds of shows are common in the UK and have been for many years."

Secretary of the Blackburn Licensed Victuallers Association and landlord of the Rising Sun in Wilpshire, Geoff Sutcliffe, said: "I don't know of anything of this description going on in any other pubs in Blackburn, but it certainly doesn't sound like anything we would recommend to our members."