A JOKE written on a blackboard outside a popular Poole bar sparked unwarranted fears of a new pole-dancing club in town.

Staff at the Camden Bar, a firm favourite with revellers in Ashley Cross, regularly write light-hearted messages on their menu board.

So as the bar had scaffolding outside, while the neighbouring property has a makeover, bar manager Lauren Curley decided to incorporate this into her message.

She explained: “As a joke, because of all the scaffolding outside, we drew a little cartoon of a monkey on a pole and wrote the Camden had monkey bars and pole-dancing.

“We just like to have a bit of light-hearted fun with our customers. In the past, for example, we’ve written things on the board such as ‘unattended children will be given a kitten and fed free coffee’. We’re just trying to have a bit of fun with it.”

But it appears some neighbours failed to see the funny side. Indeed, some may have been sent into a panic at the prospect of pole-dancing monkeys descending on the district.

Miss Curley explained: “I took a call from a council official last Friday, informing me of residents’ concerns that we were putting on pole dancing at the bar which, of course, needs a separate licence.

“I wracked and wracked my brains but I just couldn’t think how someone had come to that conclusion – then I remembered the board we’d put out for just one day.

“I told the council we were just joking, but I was told ‘Well, the residents didn’t think it was funny.’”

Miss Curley has since apologised online to anyone who was offended.

A Borough of Poole spokesman confirmed one of their officers spoke to the Camden Bar about the issue.

The council spokesman said: “We spoke to them after a resident raised some concerns and were quickly able to establish it was a hoax.”