Another lap-dancing club looks likely to open in central Brighton - sparking fears of a red light district.

For Your Eyes Only has applied to transform the Kooklub in Pool Valley into a new venue called FYEO which would open until 4am.

The coach station in Pool Valley is part of a £350,000 redevelopment to spruce up the area.

Concerns have been raised that a strip club could be tourists' first glimpse of Brighton's historic centre.

The operator has a string of venues across the country and is already advertising its Brighton branch on its website.

Just yards away, Spearmint Rhino will be adding to its international empire in East Street in the autumn.

The news comes as Brighton and Hove City Council pressed ahead with plans to create legislation to stop the proliferation of strip clubs.

Plans for Brighton and Hove's first fully nude venue - The Rocco Mana in East Street - were approved by magistrates last year, overturning the council's initial rejection.

Magistrates ruled that police could not establish the link between strip clubs and disorder and threw out the council's decision not to grant the Spearmint Rhino-linked venue a licence.

This has left the council almost powerless to stop clubs opening. Earlier this year Grace of Brighton started operating in North Street to no opposition.

Councillors now want to close the loophole with a Private Member's Bill which would allow organisations outside Parliament such as councils to gain powers not available under general law. Labour councillors had raised fears that a report to the policy and resources committee would lead to the Bill not being introduced into Parliament until November 2008, but at the meeting on Thursday all parties backed an amendment to aim for later this year.

Vanessa Brown, deputy chairman of the policy and resources committee, said a strip club next to the coach station would be bad for the city.

She said: "We are seeking new powers that will allow us much greater scope to prevent pole and lap-dancing clubs being sited in inappropriate locations, in the same way that we can control the licensing of sex shops and adult cinemas.

"Whether we get these powers locally, or whether we lobby for a national change in law, it's time that Brighton and Hove had the power to say no to more sex establishments in the city."

Councillor Jeane Lepper, who began work on the Bill before the election, said: "We need to make sure that we do not have a concentration of these venues in an area because we do not want a red-light district."

The city's first strip clubs - Pussycat in Church Road, Hove, and Top Totty in Grand Parade, Brighton, have also been granted fully nude licences.

For Your Eyes Only refused to comment.