A TOWN Councillor cleared of breaching the council’s code of conduct has been reported for fraudulently signing a fellow councillor’s signature.

Durham County Council are looking into a complaint made against Ferryhill Town Councillor Dave Farry, who is accused of signing motions on behalf of fellow Town Councillor, Laura Davies.

Cllr Davies said she had no idea that motions had been put forward without her permission until a Facebook post alerted her.

“I was on my honeymoon when I saw a post that Cllr Farry had commented on regarding the taxi rank in Ferryhill,” she said. “When I looked at it I saw a photograph of a motion that had my signature on.

“I knew I hadn’t signed it, so I commented on the post immediately making it clear it was not my signature, that I did not agree with the motion and that the post should be removed immediately.

“You could clearly see that it was my forged signature, it was not just my name or my initials.

“It then came to light that other motions had been signed on my behalf.”

Cllr Farry says he had a “verbal agreement” with Cllr Davies, and that he had nothing to gain by signing motions without her knowledge.

However Cllr Davies disputes the claim of a verbal agreement being in place. adding that she had no knowledge of said agreement.

Cllr Farry added: “I’m very disappointed that a complaint has been made, because we had a verbal agreement that we could sign motions on behalf of one another if one of us was not around.

“I’m not going to say I didn’t sign them, because I did, but only one of them made it to the town council’s agenda and it was withdrawn by Cllr Davies before it was discussed.

“Cllr Davies and I campaigned together and we have a good working relationship and I hope we can continue to work together as the only two independent town councillor’s on Ferryhill Town Council.”

Cllr Davies added: “At this point there is nothing at the town council with my name on and from this point on anything with my name on will be genuine and from myself.

“I am my own person with my own views, I’m genuinely here to improve and support Ferryhill and anything that we can do.”

Helen Lynch, Durham County Council’s head of legal and democratic services, said: “We can confirm we have received a complaint about a member of Ferryhill Town Council which is currently being evaluated in accordance with the local assessment procedure for code of conduct complaints.”