A brothel offering group sex is operating within yards of a primary school.

Dimensions, on the corner of Elm Grove and Bentham Road, Brighton, offers "young, thin and busty girls" to punters.

It is directly across the road from Elm Grove Primary School, which is attended by 431 pupils aged five to 11.

Parents and councillors demanded the vice den be closed immediately.

Carol Homewood, whose son Charlie, attends the school, said: "It's disgusting. I didn't know it about it but I don't think this is an appropriate place for a brothel, right opposite a school."

Elm Grove headteacher John Lynch said: "Although we have received no official complaint it is disconcerting for the school community to learn that there is such an establishment so close."

The law allows prostitutes working alone in flats to offer sex but any premises with more than one sex worker is illegal and can be shut down by police.

Yesterday, The Argus found at least eight women were working at the address.

Gill Mitchell, Labour's environment councillor on Brighton and Hove City Council, said: "We are checking to see if there have been any reports of antisocial behaviour related to that address.

"Whether it's an illegal brothel is a matter for the police."

A spokeswoman for Brighton and Hove Police said: "We have not received any complaints about Dimensions in Elm Grove, Brighton.

"The city does have an indoor sex market compared with very little evidence of an on-street sex market."

The Government has announced plans - still in their early stages - to change the law to allow two prostitutes and a receptionist to work together in brothels. It believes working in groups would be safer for women.

Green Party Councillor Bill Randall, who represents the ward of Hanover and Elm Grove, said the brothel should be closed.

The massage parlour has been on the site since 1981 and used to be a hairdresser's shop.

It is understood the business pays business rates and income tax and the police have paid visits to make sure the women working there have not been brought in from Eastern Europe.

Coun Randall said: "I share the view of local parents who are outraged that a brothel is operating opposite the primary school as it could attract men who are a danger to children."

Kelly Bull, of Penhurst Place, Whitehawk, Brighton, said: "A lot of the mums have stood around wondering what it was but I didn't know for sure.

"It's not ideal to have it so close to a school but I don't know where else they could go.

"Three of my boys have gone through this school and none of them know about it.

"There are probably worse things going on in most of the other houses around here."