A strip club will open in Rochester High Street tonight, 15 months after it was approved.

Medway's biggest nightclub, the Casino Rooms, provoked a row among residents when it announced plans for Tenshi.

Named for a similar nightspot in Essex, it planned to fit more than 100 drinkers and have four lap-dancing booths, a VIP area with one pole and a stage with another.

A licensing panel in February 2012 was told conversion work could take about a month and cost £150,000.

But it has taken far longer - and cost more, according to Casino Rooms boss Aaron Stone.

The venue's website has announced there will be an invitation-only opening party tonight with a champagne reception tomorrow night.

The strip club will use a separate entrance to the main nightclub and have at least 18 CCTV cameras to monitor punters.

After the licensing meeting last year, councillors were angry that they had no legal grounds to refuse the application, so they set a limit of two strip clubs in Rochester at any time.

Both licences could soon be held by Mr Stone's family.

The second club, Charlotte's Bar, relinquished its licence citing fear of competition from Tenshi.

Charlotte’s owner Luke Tumana, 43, said: “It would be like a Mini and a Formula 1 car.”

An application for a second Tenshi has now gone in for the building which currently houses Rochester's indoor market.

More than 140 people have signed a petition against the new application.