A PETITION calling for a councillor to step down has been launched just as she launches a formal appeal against her conviction for assaulting her neighbour.

The e-petition calls for Richmondshire District Councillor Jane Parlour to quit, after she was found guilty at York Magistrates Court of assault and threatening behaviour..

The court heard how Cllr Parlour had been involved in a fight with her neighbour Elizabeth Kearney in Dalton-on-Tees, near Darlington, on July 13 last year.

Children who witnessed the incident told the court the independent councillor, 52, had kneed her neighbour in the face, dragging her by the hair into a bush and pulling clumps out.

Cllr Parlour told the court Mrs Kearney started the fight by pulling her hair and she had been defending herself. Both women called the police claiming to have been attacked.

The councillor has vowed to clear her name and has described the petition as part of a “malicious campaign” to discredit her.

Cllr Parlour said: “As far as I’m concerned I haven’t done anything wrong at all, hence I’ve lodged an appeal. People are perfectly entitled to put whatever petition they want on this website but from what I’ve heard it’s full of misinformation.”

The e-petition on Change.org, started by Victoria McAfee from Darlington, is calling for Cllr Parlour to step down from Richmondshire District Council, where she is head of the authority’s planning committee.

The document, which by Monday (March 30) afternoon had about 200 signatures, references the court case and a planning application submitted by Cllr Parlour two weeks after the altercation to build a 16ft high hay barn less than 7ft from the Kearneys' property.

The Kearneys objected to the plan but it was approved by Richmondshire’s planning committee against the advice of the planning officer, who deemed it would create “significant harmful impact” upon the property.

The council’s corporate director, Callum McKeon, said Cllr Parlour played no part in the decision, other than to speak at the committee in the same way any other applicant would.

He said the sections of council constitution quoted in the e-petition are rules that govern council employee conduct, not that of elected councillors.

He said: "The district council has no concerns as to the lawfulness or validity of that decision which was made by a committee of 12 elected members of the council and is happy to assist the Local Government Ombudsman in looking into the decision-making process relating to that application if they wish. To date no such request has been made by the ombudsman.

“The district council is duty bound to consider any complaint made to it concerning the actions of any of its elected members but the court case which prompted the online petition was the result of a domestic dispute concerning children playing on hay bales at Jane Parlour’s farm and was not connected in any way to her work as a district councillor.”