A COUNCILLOR was suspended for a month yesterday after a tribunal ruled on an argument over who was first sitting in a chair.

Councillor Billy Blenkinsopp’s suspension marks the end of a 16- month row with Councillor Dorothy Bowman which he estimates has cost the taxpayer £50,000.

The pair, both members of Great Aycliffe Town Council, fell out when Coun Bowman sat down at a town council meeting on September 9, 2009.

While councillors do not have reserved seats they often sit in the same place, and Coun Blenkinsopp believed Coun Bowman was sitting in someone else’s chair.

The tribunal found that Coun Blenkinsopp told Coun Bowman to “p*** off” which he denied – claiming he told her to “get down her own end”.

The matter had already been before Durham County Council’s standards committee, which ruled on Coun Blenkinsopp’s behaviour, on May 18, last year.

Coun Blenkinsopp accepted the ruling that he should write a letter of apology to Coun Bowman but when he failed to do so, he was suspended from being a councillor for three months.

Yesterday’s tribunal was held after Coun Blenkinsopp, a former jockey who has served on various councils for 24 years, appealed against the three-month ban.

Coun Blenkinsopp told the tribunal that “tradition dictates”

he, as deputy leader, should sit next to Bob Fleming, the then leader of the town council, as he had done that evening.

Coun Bowman said she had gone to sit in her usual place, next door but one to the leader, which she claimed prompted Coun Blenkinsopp’s four-letter out burst.

The tribunal heard that a third councillor, Alison Palmer, who usually sits between Coun Bowman and Coun Fleming, was absent that evening.

The tribunal upheld the standards committee’s ruling that Coun Blenkinsopp had breached Great Aycliffe Town Council’s code of conduct by using foul language.

However, it found that a threemonth ban for failing to apologise, was disproportionate and reduced it to one month.

When asked by the tribunal why he had failed to apologise, Coun Blenkinsopp said he had received advice from senior councillors that he should not.

Chairman of the tribunal David Laverick said: “We think it is unfortunate that Coun Blenkinsopp did not make the apology and we find his explanation as to why unconvincing.”