TOWN HALL politicians slapped a controversial ban on meetings by East Lancashire freemasons.

And today a Labour group spokesman said masonic secrecy had led to the ban by Manchester City Council.

Coun Pat Karney said: "It is easy to dismiss masonic organisations as a group of schoolboys who like to mess around in medieval costume.

"But there are now 800,000 masons in the country and this is a threat to democracy."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.