BIG, burly builders working above Blackpool's Funny Girls showbar have proved they are soft as putty when it comes to chicks.

For when they found a pigeon had laid an egg on a ledge in an upper floor where they were supposed to be working, they refused to give it the bird.

Instead they carefully protected the nest and tiptoed round it, delaying work on a whole section of a new caf bar and restaurant until the nestling has flown.

Amused project designer Adrian Gannon explained: "They've built a little box round the nest so the mother pigeon can still fly in and out, and held up work on that part of the job until the young bird can fend for itself.

"We were going to put the new frontage on this week but the pigeons have delayed it by two or three weeks."

Funny Girls, a hugely-popular transvestite showbar in Queen Street, will launch its new multi-floor Fay's caf bar and restaurant in November.

Its owner is the larger-than-life entrepreneur Basil Newby, whose In The Pink Leisure company owns gay bars, pubs and clubs around the town.

And the name of the fluffy baby who has won the builders' hearts? It had to be Basil.

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