CLUB owners in Blackburn today blasted the council for under-cutting their Saturday night trade by running a cut-price free entry nightclub of their own.

Club Tropicana, run by the council at King George's Hall in Northgate offers free entry and cheap drinks, which traders say are impossible to compete against.

At a Bar-U scheme meeting, attended by licensees, club-owners, council officials and council leader Sir Bill Taylor, the council was heavily criticised for damaging the trade of other businesses in town.

Simon Makinson, owner of Moist Cafe Bar in Northgate, called on the council to stop running Club Tropicana.

He said: "It's wrong. King George's Hall shouldn't be run as a nightclub in my opinion.

"The council are setting up in competition with other operators and they obviously have an unfair advantage as they don't have the same financial pressures as we have.

"It's a completely unlevel playing field."

Simon, 29, said the regular soul night at King George's Hall, run in co-operation with Jazz FM, was good for the town but Club Tropicana hit his trade by 25 per cent.

Adrian Garner, lease-holder for Never Never Land and owner of Bar Ibiza, has worked in pubs and clubs in Blackburn for 25 years.

He said that the council was offering cut price deals to punters that ordinary club-owners simply could not afford to do.

He said: "All the licensees in Blackburn pay a lot of rates and council tax.

"Yet the council is running this nightclub in King George's Hall which is free to get in and cheap drinks.

"All the people who have got pubs are saying that it's not fair competition, it's not a level paying field.

"Everybody is trying to make ends meet, it's a cut throat business at the moment."

Legendary Blackburn club-owner Margo Grimshaw agreed.

She said: "I have always thought it was unfair. Any other nightclub trading only on a Saturday night simply wouldn't be able to have free entry. It wouldn't be viable.

"I don't mind them doing cheap ale but they would be helping the town if they used Thwaites brewery, but they don't they use a foreign brewery."

The council's director of culture, leisure and sport, Steve Rigby, did not address the traders' fears and would only issue a statement which said: "Blackburn with Darwen Council tries to trade competitively to ensure council tax payers get good value for money. King George's Hall operates a multi-function complex catering for all ages and cultures.

"Prices for drinks are set in line with the council's price list and we do not offer any discounted drinks at any time. The council's catering service is required to operate to very strict budgetary targets."