Reporters were banned from using Twitter to report the outcome of a crunch planning meeting last night.

A packed public gallery watched as councillors in Trafford approved £32m redevelopment plans for Lancashire County Cricket Club’s stadium, along with a new supermarket, which could see the return of test cricket to the ground.

But those left outside were unable to follow proceedings as the chairman of Trafford Council’s planning committee, Councillor Vivienne Ward, had banned all mobile phones and laptops from the meeting.

The move was a turnabout as reporters from the Manchester Evening News and its sister weeklies have been covering meetings live via Twitter across Greater Manchester’s ten councils since before Christmas.

MEN head of online content Paul Gallagher told HTFP: “Previously Trafford Council has been more than happy for us to tweet live from meetings and its deputy leader and some councillors have been doing so.

“The chairwoman said she didn’t want mobile phones being used during the meeting so we said we could use our laptops instead but she just said ‘no’.

“The council did approach her on our behalf but she stayed firm. The meeting was absolutely packed and they had to turn people away, such was the level of interest.”

To compensate for the lack of ‘live’ coverage from inside the meeting, Paul scoured various Twitter feeds, including that of Lancashire and England cricketer James Anderson, to pull in any relevant updates.

Pictures, including some of mascot ‘Lanky’ the giraffe who actually made it into the public gallery, were wired directly from outside the meeting by MEN photographers.

The actual result of the meeting was tweeted as soon as possible by reporter Bethan Dorsett from the MEN Media title the Trafford Metro.

Paul added: “It just highlighted the futility of trying to stop it when so many people have got smart phones and it only takes a second to share this information.

“If phones were ringing left, right and centre I could understand it but if someone is using it, they don’t make a sound. I cannot see any reason for a ban.”

A spokesperson for Trafford Council told the MEN: “Decisions about broadcasts from a council committee are at the discretion of the chairman of that committee.

“In the course of any planning committee meeting the chairman requests that all mobile devices be switched off. This is to avoid distracting participants or members of the audience and to avoid any disturbance to proceedings.”