Residents and business owners in Edinburgh have increased their attempts to stop a gay sauna opening in their neighbourhood.

Protestors have flooded the local council with objections and have contributed to delays in granting the venue a licence.

Earlier this year, Northkyle Limited received planning permission for a sauna and health club in the city’s gay district.

Protestors are seeking to block the club’s attempt at securing a late licence.

John Bennett, whose business premises are next door to the proposed development, is organising the protest.

He told the Edinburgh Evening News: "There’s a lot of concern about the morals aspects of this place but the main source of worry is about the level of disruption from people coming and going in the middle of the night.”

Licenses for the late-night entertainment and catering were due to be discussed by councillors this week. Following the volume of complaints, the discussion will now take place in the new year.

Northkyle director Martin Cooper said the development would be a "safe, secure and discreet leisure facility for the all-male market".

He added: "We believe the premises are suitable for this purpose, not least for their proximity to Broughton Street, the centre of the city’s ‘pink triangle.’ We believe our proposal represents a quiet, low-impact and neighbourly use, which is entirely compatible with the area.”

Cooper said people arriving at the complex were likely to arrive in "ones and twos", that its customers were not likely "to wish to draw attention to themselves" and that none of its proposed uses were "noisy."

He said: "A lot of the objections to these applications have been whipped up by misunderstandings and hysteria by one or two vocal people in the local neighbourhood."