The police refused to speak to their local newspaper after it ran an article that the inspector felt was inaccurate.

Their communication ban lasted for more than a week after the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald ran a story reporting how Chippenham Town Council thought it was being threatened with prosecution if it moved some benches back to a bridge where youths congregated.

At a meeting of the town council's amenities committee, the chairman, Marian Strickland, said it was her understanding that the police had threatened the town council with prosecution if the benches were moved.

The paper reported the meeting, the resolution and that some of the councillors were concerned about what was happening.

Editor Gary Lawrence said: "After the paper was published I learnt that the inspector had called our chief reporter to inform her that because we had run the story he was not speaking to us and would ensure none of his officers would pass on any information to the public via the Gazette.

"This was a story discussed at a meeting in public and the subject of a press release from the town council.

"I could understand it if the inspector decided he wasn't going to speak to us but to then order everyone who reports to him not to do so either is a bit much.

"He felt our story has soured relations with the town council, although I maintained that our story was reflecting the fact that some members of the council were not happy with the police in the first place, so the relations were already soured.

"I hope he accepted that we had done our best to check the story - having tried from Monday to Wednesday to get someone to talk to us - but had perhaps not made it totally clear what the story was when we eventually spoke to them on the Wednesday."

The local inspector, Gavin Williams, later said that his officers felt vulnerable in the wake of the Gazette's reporting, which he felt was inaccurate.

Gary conceded that the story may not have fully reflected the police's position on the benches - and said that when looking for a police comment on the matter, it might not have been clear that the town council thought it was going to be prosecuted.