Bradford Council is under pressure to lift its 14-year ban on striptease acts and allow lap and table dancers to perform in city clubs for the first time.

The clubs - where girls dance topless or nude for individual customers - are permitted in towns and cities across Europe.

But Bradford Council is believed to be one of the last local authorities in Britain to have a ban on stripping in pubs and clubs and could face a challenge in the European courts if it refuses to allow the acts.

Two operators who want to bring in the girls said today the stigma attached to the profession was undeserved and the dancing would be professional and supervised.

Leeds-based Land Leisure wants to open a new table dancing club in an empty building in Edmund Street with strict codes of practice for dancers, customers and staff.

The owner of Monroes in Cheapside in the city centre also wants to bring in lap dancers as part of its overall entertainments programme.

They have both submitted applications for provisional entertainments licences to Bradford Council and want a clause banning striptease to be removed.

Booths would be provided in both the premises for the acts and prices of either £10 or £20 would depend on whether the girls danced topless or nude.

Steven Selby, who has owned Monroes for four years and Brad Hutchinson, of Land Leisure, which wants to open the club in Edmund Street, said there would be strict codes of conduct and security.

Mr Selby said he wanted to operate the routines in line with other cities and towns, which even included genteel Harrogate.

He said: "We don't intend to make it the main and sole entertainment at Monroes. We don't want this to be a gentleman's club. We will be continuing with our live bands and karaoke and would like to start with this maybe once a week."

He said the girls would dance with clients on a one-to-one basis, probably in booths.

Mr Selby added: "There seems to be a stigma about this and people don't understand what they really are."

He said if the Council gave permission the club would recruit about five professional dancers.

Mr Hutchinson said the illusion of "men in long rain coats" and "sleazy clubs" was wrong and it was accepted as professional entertainment in scores of towns and cities.

But former Labour Councillor Gillian Thornton, who strongly supported the striptease ban brought in by the Council in 1988, said: "This sort of thing would be to the detriment of Bradford."

Councillor Barry Thorne, deputy leader of Bradford Council's Labour group and a former chairman of its leisure committee, also said it would harm the city.

But variety club owner John Pennington said: "It is wrong for the Council to tell people what they think we should do. If you don't want to watch it, you don't have to."

He said he would not be introducing the acts in his own club, however.

Dean Loynes, chairman of Bradford Inner City Licensing Association, said: "It's a personal choice and no-one is forced to watch it. Personally it isn't a thing I would be interested in."

Licensing panel chairman, Councillor Martin Smith, said: "We would want to do some research before we reach a decision next Friday. It would be very carefully considered."

The panel members do not have to vote along political lines and their decisions can be challenged in the Crown Court.

A number of other authorities have lifted bans on striptease because of a clause in European law which gives people the "right of free expression". But issues of health and morals can also be taken into consideration.

If the licences were granted by the Council it would allow lap dancing between noon and 1am daily at Monroes and between 11am and 4am daily at Land Leisure's proposed club in Edmund Street.