LAP dancing clubs are not the first places to spring to mind when you imagine a retired couple on a night out.

But Bournemouth councillors Rod and Elaine Cooper were determined that research into their new book would be as accurate as possible.

Notebooks in hand, the pensioners set off to find out first-hand about the town’s nightlife for inclusion in their new guide to the town, Discover Bournemouth.

Now they are hoping thousands of people will be interested to know what they had to say about the clubs, as well as all the other attractions they visited over a three-year period.

“The whole range of nightlife is an integral part of Bournemouth,” said Rod, 69. “We discovered there are quite a few women in the lap dancing clubs and we also saw the other aspects of Bournemouth’s nightlife.”

The book covers the whole of Bournemouth, as well as parts of Christchurch, Ringwood and the New Forest.

Attractions visited by the couple include the Russell Cotes Museum, the pier, the Oceanarium, Westbourne, Talbot Village and Holdenhurst in Bournemouth.

Rod and Elaine, 72, also went to Christchurch Priory, Mudeford Sandbank, Moors Valley Country Park and Tuckton, among scores of other places. The full-colour book contains no adverts and Rod added: “We hope we have been as honest as we can be about Bournemouth.

“There is not another book like it.”

Discover Bournemouth will be published by Halsgrove on July 1 and will be available in bookshops for £14.99.

The couple have carried out research for a similar book about Poole and hope it will be published in the New Year.