PROPOSED legislation to stop people handing out leaflets in Harlow town centre has been given the thumbs down.

The proposed rules, which have arisen from the Cleaner Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005, would have stopped people handing out any kind of flyers apart from those on behalf of charities, politics or religious beliefs.

But Conservative councillor Tony Hall told the council's environment and community committee that while some people were concerned whether the legislation would curtail the freedom of speech, the fact it allowed for political, religious and charity-based material meant this would not be a genuine problem.

He added: "In any case, this legislation was brought forward by a Labour government and simply adopting it will not cost the council a penny."

But Liberal Democrat councillor Lorna Spenceley disagreed, saying the regulations would not amount to genuine freedom of speech.

She said: "There's a principle of free speech in this country and we should not start tinkering with it unless in exceptional circumstances such as cases of someone inciting people to murder.

"Preventing people from handing out flyers at their own expense simply because it's messy is not right.

"Freedom of speech is just that and if people want to hand out flyers about pizza or nightclubs then so be it.

"It's crazy that under this legislation people would be prevented from handing out literature encouraging people to sign up for educational courses, but it would be permissible to hand out leaflets saying you are from the Moonies and you want to brain-wash everybody with your religion."

Joint council leader Tony Durcan (Labour) said the council has a duty and a responsibility to find out the cost and value of an operation before sanctioning it.

He said: "There's no hard data for how much this would cost us. The report does not even say there is a problem, it just provides a solution."