THE Tweed brothel industry is booming as one sex den gets ready to extend its hours to open 24/7.

One of five council-approved brothels in the Tweed, Julianna's Gentlemen's Retreat on Enterprise Ave at Tweed Heads South, can now keep its red lights on all night and all day, seven days a week.

It joins at least one other brothel in Tweed Heads South which already has council approval to operate 24 hours a day, every day.

Tweed Shire Council last Thursday granted the new owner of Julianna's a 12-month trial to operate at all hours of the day in a bid to keep up with the demand from clients.

Having been restricted in 2010 by the Land and Environment Court to only operate from 6pm to 6am daily, Julianna's Gentleman's Retreat has continued to seek council approval for an operational licence with no time limit.

But the approval was given pending a 12 month trial proposed by Cr Chris Cherry, who argued the community should have a say.

"This is just saying a 12-month trial would be an appropriate thing to go with as opposed to the staff recommendation of a permanent recommendation,” Cr Cherry said.

"This makes it more consistent with our brothels' policy so we don't allow it carte blanche but we give it a trial. This allows people the opportunity to say what they think about it while it's in operation.”

While the brothel did have a year-long trial for 24 hours, seven days a week in 2014, Cr Cherry said there was not enough evidence to prove the trial ever occurred.

"It wasn't clear in the staff report or the evidence whether the trial did occur,” she said. "We did advertise this for two weeks and we received one complaint. This allows us a fair trial again when it's unclear whether the trial ever did occur. We have a new owner of the premises, so it would be wise to put it on trial.”

The new owner of the premises stated in the application they were unsure whether the brothel actually conducted the trial but said previous advertising suggested it was operational 24 hours a day.

Cr Ron Cooper said he believed brothels played an important part in the Tweed community, especially for people with disabilities.

"They're not just places the average guy goes,” he said. "They're also places where people with disabilities can go. Having them under a managed system is somewhere where we should be going.”

Cr Cooper said he recalled the debate of brothels dated back to when he was a councillor in the 1990s.

"The brothel issue has occurred since my first time in council,” he said.

"It was finally formalised by State Government saying it should go into industrial areas and it was finalised because we needed them under a managed system.”