Paris councillors and feminist groups are demanding the closure of a ‘brothel’ where male clients are charged nearly £80 an hour for the use of life-sized sex dolls.

Communist members of the Paris Council have tabled a motion calling for the closure of the ‘brothel’, which opened in the middle-class 14th arrondissement last month. Based in an unremarkable-looking flat, the brothel offers clients three rooms with soft lighting, music and ‘naked’ silicone dolls made in China.

The dolls are spray-cleaned in another room, according to the owner, Joaquin Lousy, 29. He told Le Parisien newspaper that he was astonished by the controversy as the operation, known as ‘Xdolls’, was discreet. Bookings are made online and the exact address is kept secret, he said. “Even the neighbours don’t know about it.”

Client are mainly “men aged between 30 and 50, usually executive types, clean, as well as a few couples who come for a new sexual experience,” he added.

But Nicolas Bonnet Ouladj, the head of the communist group in the council, said: “Xdolls purveys a degrading image of women.” Mr Lousquy countered: “I’m not the right person to respond to that. I’m not a sociologist or a philosopher or a psychologist.”