REGULARS at a village pub are getting more than a pint and pork scratchings.

Struggling with falling trade, Lee Swainsbury , landlord of the Harp Inn, Hale Street, East Peckham, decided to liven things up by bringing in some raunchy entertainment.

After staging live music and taking on a chef failed to pull in the trade, in a last ditch attempt he employed strippers to put on a show four days a week.

And it seems to be working. Now he gets customers from across the county and as far as south east London to watch the live shows on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

“The pub has never been a business that you are going to make much money out of and I needed to find some way to keep it going,” said Mr Swainsbury. “I had no other option but to try new things and the only thing I could think of was to bring in erotic dancers.

“People come from everywhere to see them. I am still losing money but it has really turned things around. There is obviously a market for it.”

Despite claims from villagers that the new attraction to their neighbourhood “lowers the tone”, Mr Swainsbury, who runs the pub with his wife Natasha, said there was never any trouble at the pub.

“Before I came it was a troubled pub,” he said. “Residents used to complain about wheel-spinning, late-night drinking, and fighting. We now only open the pub for the dance evenings, which start at 5pm and don’t usually go on after 9.30pm.

“I don’t think the erotic dancing lowers the tone, it’s just another form of entertainment. Anyone who doesn’t like that sort of thing doesn’t have to come and watch.”

One villager, who asked not to be named said “I know that they are attracting people to the pub from quite a long way away. Apparently you have to give the girls a pound and then they do something, I don’t know what.

“I don’t like the idea of loads of lecherous blokes hanging around the village and I think it lowers the tone.”

Neither East Pekcham Parish Council nor the Rev Anthony Carr, vicar of Holy Trinity Church, was prepared to comment.

One of the dancers, Angel Summers, 26, from Rochester, said the show was not lewd but “burlesque”.

She said: “I choose a song before the performance and all the guys in the audience, although we do get couples, put a pound in a tin.

“I put the track on and start to dance, and gradually items of clothing start to come off. I take everything off down to a thong.

“I don’t see why people would be upset; it is really a burlesque performance. All of the punters have fun and they really just have a bit of a giggle.

“It is a lovely place to do the performance because it’s tucked away and not right in the middle of a high street. I never feel intimidated and at the end of the evening customers are very polite and even help me with my bags to the car.

“At the end of the day we go home to normal lives and are wives, girlfriends, and mothers, and during the day do all the mundane things like cooking and cleaning.”