A MAYOR has refused to publically apologise after being banned from a pub for allegedly being rude while ordering a beer shandy.

Landlord Andy Hill claimed Tony Cooke talked to staff “like they were something he’d scraped off the bottom of his shoe” on a number of occasions during an official reception at the pub.

However, Councillor Cooke, recently appointed as mayor of Barnard Castle for a second term, has insisted he was innocent.

The long-running quarrel came to a head earlier this week when Mr Hill and his wife, who run the Beaconsfield public house, attended a meeting of Barnard Castle Town Council to demand an apology.

The couple had complained about the mayor’s alleged behaviour, said to have happened during a reception following the town’s annual Aviation Day last July.

They claim he was rude to staff several times – and on one occasion, while ordering a pint of beer shandy, told Mr Hill to “just get on with it”.

Demanding an apology during Monday night’s council meeting, Mr Hill said: “He spoke to my wife and staff like they were something he’d scraped off the bottom of his shoe. I wouldn’t speak to my children like that and I find it disgusting. If he wasn’t Mayor would he have spoken to us like that? Where is our apology that we have been waiting for for 12 months?”

Despite the town council voting in favour of suggesting Coun Cooke apologise, he refused.

He said: “It was dealt with by the standards committee and I am sorry but I’m not going to apologise for something I haven’t done.”

The matter was referred to Durham County Council’s Standards Board, which wrote to Mr and Mrs Hill.

However, they say it did not arrive and as they did not respond within 14 days, the matter was dismissed.

The couple banned Coun Cooke from the pub and, as a result, he was unable to attend two events there to celebrate last month’s carnival.

He will also be absent from this year’s Aviation Day event.