THREE men accused of scaling Colne Town Hall in a nine-hour siege have been banned from pubs and off-licences in the town.

A police spokesman said they arrested Terry Saunders, 32, of Hawley Street, David Cook, 42, of Hawley Street, and Mark Chesney, 33, of Green Road, all Colne, on suspicion of criminal damage following the incident last Thursday.

They have been released on bail pending further inquiries, but in the meantime pub landlords and licensees have banned them from their premises for three years.

The decision was taken by Colne premises involved in the police-backed Communities Against Night-time Disorder Committee. Committee chair-man and licensee of the Union Exchange pub, Maggie Owens, said the three had been placed under an emergency ban, which would be made official at a meeting on Monday.

Mrs Owens said: "The feedback from all the licensees is that they should be banned.

"As a group, the committee is trying to build up the reput-ation of the town. We have a lot of public trust and we had to do something about it.

"If they were younger kids people might have taken less of a stand, but these are grown men."

Sergeant John Fryer, of Colne police, said officers would decide whether to bring charges against the trio when the Crown Prosecution Service finished its review of the case.

He said: "This is a real example of how the comm-unity can work together with the police against behaviour like this.

"The committee works very closely with town centre officers PC Mark Walker and PCSO Gareth Ingham, and they are fully behind this course of action."

During the incident three men climbed to the top of the historic building's clock tower at around midnight and remained there until after 8am, pelting passers-by with stones and slates, and turning the clock's hands to make it chime.

Church Street was closed off to vehicles and pedestrians during rush hour.