A COUNCILLOR has been cleared of breaking a code of conduct after he told an elderly woman to shut up.

Labour councillor Gordon Plummer, who represents Lascelles ward on Darlington Borough Council, was reported to the National Standards Board after the incident at a ward surgery last year.

He is alleged to have said to the woman "shut up, will you?", after she made a complaint, with a group of other residents, about their sheltered housing complex.

The woman's granddaughter was told about the incident and wrote to the council to complain.

The complaint, which was considered a possible breach of the council's code of conduct, was then passed on to the National Standards Board to investigate.

In its summary of the incident, the board said that Coun Plummer had listened to the pensioners' complaint.

He then said he would speak to the council's housing department during office hours.

The report says that when the group persisted with its complaints, Coun Plummer admitted to getting frustrated and being abrupt.

The report said: "Although he could not recall exactly what he said, he acknowledged that he may have said something similar to the words attributed to him by the complainant's grandmother."

The report concluded that although the incident was regrettable, it did not amount to a breach of the code of conduct because it was an isolated incident and the only complaint that had been made against Coun Plummer during his 24 years of service.