Labour banned its councillors from attending an "alternative" council meeting last night.

The meeting at Brighton Town Hall was organised by the local government trades union Unison after the council's Labour leaders cancelled the regular meeting because of insufficient business.

Labour's ruling group barred members from going, saying it was just a meeting for the sake of it.

But four Labour councillors who would otherwise have gone, Joyce Edmond-Smith, Steve Collier, Heather James and Pat Murphy, delivered a statement which was read to the meeting.

They said they regretted the ban, the cancellation of the meeting and the refusal to discuss its reinstatement.

And they added: "Cancelling the meeting amounts to an absence of openness and democratic accountability."

They did not accept there was not enough business and would have liked bus cuts and the council's Local Plan to have been discussed.

But cabinet culture councillor Ian Duncan said beforehand: "I have no intention of going to a Unison stunt. I shall be on the beach enjoying the sunshine."

The meeting was chaired by former Hove Labour councillor Andy Richards, of Unison. But he did not sit in the mayor's seat, leaving it symbolically empty.

More than 20 Tory councillors attended and opposition leader Geoffrey Theobald said: "There is no democracy in this council.

"I have been a councillor for 30 years and I can never remember the main July meeting being cancelled before. It should never happen again."

He said Labour councillors dared not bring important issues before the full council because they could not be sure of getting them through.

Tory deputy leader Brian Oxley said there was a chance that the Local Government Bill might not become law and that a more democratic way of running councils would eventually be approved.

Green councillor Keith Taylor said: "The opportunities for debate seem to be getting fewer and fewer. The cabinet seems to be working on the premise that if it can't win an argument, it will do all it can to stop it taking place."

He said the cancellation of the meeting made a mockery of the recent decision to increase the number of council meetings.

Liberal Democrat leader Paul Elgood said: "It is a tragedy that it has taken Unison to organise this meeting. The cabinet should be here to be held to account.

"The abandoning of democracy by the Labour administration is a disgrace and they should be ashamed of themselves."