A LANDLORD has been told to stop putting a controversial advertising board on a village green, despite a petition containing 128 signatures calling for it to stay.

Morris Race put the sign outside the Wheatsheaf at Staindrop in a bid to boost passing lunchtime trade, as the pub is set back from the road.

But while sympathising with him, the parish council, as custodians of the green, had asked for its removal.

Mr Race attended the council's latest meeting to put his case, after which supporters, led by Amanda Horner of Mill Wynd, handed in a petition.

He appealed to members to grant him a licence to retain the sign, saying if he set it back from the road it could not be seen.

He had tried placing in it other places, but it was not safe, having twice been hit by vehicles.

"Grant me a licence for six months, then see what feedback you get," he added. "I don't think you'll get every Tom, Dick and Harry wanting to put his caravan on just because the Wheatsheaf has got an A-board."

Mr Race was asked to leave the meeting while the matter was discussed. The petitioners also left although they were invited to stay.

Coun Barbara Hetherington, chairman, wanted it made plain that it was actually Mr Race's wife Trudi who was the licensee, and that the placing of the A-board on the green was a criminal offence.

Coun Roger Humphries was intensely weary of the issue, likening it to the urinal in the Clochemerle story.

"We do not have the power to grant Morris a licence," he said. "We have been through all this with him, and explained that every time there has been an encroachment on the green, we have taken action.

"We are not singling him out or picking on him. We have seen him at least three times and gone beyond our brief with him."

Coun Humphries said there was never going to be a solution to the problem. It was Mr Race's responsibility to find somewhere to put it, and it could be done with a little ingenuity.

"If he insists on putting it on the green, we will ultimately have to take action, as we would with any other sign," he added.

"I know of no other occasion when something placed there has not been tackled and people asked to remove it."

Coun Hetherington felt the petitioners had acted in good faith, but had sent it not knowing the full facts. She felt Mr Race had been treated very fairly. And after all, the pub was in the same place as it was when he bought it.

The clerk was instructed to write to Mr Race to thank him for attending and to tell him that they regretted that legally they were not allowed to grant a licence.

He was also to point out that the council had been scrupulously consistent regarding the village green.