PROSTITUTES have again moved in to premises above Chester's historic Bishop Lloyds Palace - using the name Charlie's Angels.

The city centre massage parlour is in the same spot where two similar businesses closed down earlier this year.

The women have been brought in from across the country to meet clients at the 51A Watergate Street premises.

PCs Steve Baldwin and Steve Payne of Chester's Inner Sector Community Action Team spoke to one of the massage parlour's employees on Wednesday.

'The female confirmed to us that it was a brothel,' said PC Baldwin.

'She was told we had received numerous complaints from the public and the business should be shut down immediately.'

Pressure to vacate from police and neighbours meant previous businesses, The Chambers and Genie's Palace, closed their doors before any official action was taken.

But this week it looks like the ladies are back in business as the building, at the back of the Chronicle, saw an increase in activity.

Operating above Rainforest - a new age shop - and the historic Bishops's Lloyd Palace, which houses the city's Civic Trust, the massage parlour has caused a great deal of consternation among neighbours.

Residents fed up with answering their doors to lost clients are desperate for police and the city council to take further action.

PC Baldwin said: 'This used to operate as Genie's Palace and was closed down three months ago. It's not known for how long Charlie's Angels 2 has been open.'

He said the women were employed through adverts in national newspaper The Sport, then given appointments and told to meet their clients at the building.

Tracing the people behind the operation is not easy as the flat is sublet from someone who in turn lets it from the city council.

'Until the council takes some action over the tenancy, this may keep recurring,' he said.

Rainforest's Debbie Lomas, has been fighting to get the council to take responsibility for the building.

She said: 'It's been going on since April last year.

'We're trying to get through to the council they are breaking a lease with us. There's no way we would have signed a contract knowing we are under a brothel.'

This week Debbie met one of the employees. 'We had a young girl in looking for 51A. I got talking to her and she's from Spain, I gather she's 25 but I thought she was a lot younger. She's living in Crewe. I felt terrible knowing what she was having to do.'

She said the business was not only affecting Rainforest.

'Everyone hates the atmosphere that's been created,' she said. 'We don't live here but it's above us. Meditation goes on here. We get groups of tourists looking at Bishops Lloyd's Palace. I wonder if they know it is a brothel.'

A spokesman for Chester City Council, who could not confirm if the building had been let to the same person over the past year, said: 'We are aware of the problem and measures are in hand to take the appropriate action. We are looking at a number of options. It has taken longer than we would have liked but we are trying to resolve it as quickly as we can.'