RULES about the use of council facilities have been tightened up after Abu Hamza made a speech in a Blackburn community centre in 2003, it was revealed today.

Hamza visited the Bangor Street Community Centre in March 2003 and spoke in front of more than 20 people.

Neither the police nor Blackburn with Darwen Council were aware of the visit until afterwards.

But the council has since tightened up rules about the use of council venues.

People now need to give details of what the venue will be used for so officials can decide if it is appropriate.

Adam Scott, director of regeneration, housing and neighbourhoods, said: "Following the incident in 2003 anyone wishing to hire buildings for meetings or other activities are made aware of the conditions of use."

Coun Salim Mulla, secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, did find out about Hamza's visit beforehand.

He said: "We condemned his visit at the time and when we found out about it our priority was to encourage all the youngsters not to attend.

"They listened to us because of the few who turned up.

"Blackburn has 30,000 Muslims and a good percentage of youngsters, but only 20 people turned up.

"I don't know the people who went and if they are going up and have these views then we don't want to speak to them".

Coun Hussain Akhtar, whose ward covers Bangor Street community centre, said he was also aware of the visit. He added: "At the time youngsters came to see us and said we are going to call Hamza into Blackburn and we need your support and help.' "We told them we didn't want anybody associating with Hamza because he will do nothing for Blackburn.

"We don't want people like that coming here who would try to destroy the unity we are working for.

"I know one of the youngsters very well and he tried to put a poster up.

"I gave him a strong comment and told him not to invite people like this. Afterwards I told him I wished he had listened to me. I think they were misguided.

"I don't think the meeting had any impact on community relations as not enough people attended."

Sergeant John Rigby said of the 2003 speech: "It was a brief and short visit.

"We were not made aware of the meeting until afterwards.

"We were concerned but as a result of feedback from communities we found out that there wasn't many people at the meeting and that they weren't representative of the local community."