A TORY councillor who is alleged to have called a community councillor a “moaning woman” has been reported to the standards commissioner.

The Scottish Borders Council member for East Berwickshire, Jim Fullarton, has been formally reported to the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland after an incident at an Eyemouth Community Council meeting in January last year. Minutes state chairman James Anderson had to ask Fullarton to “lower his voice and stop repeatedly banging his fists on the table”.

The community council’s AGM minuted that “after an admission to his actions Jim Fullarton has not apologised to anyone for his actions of hitting tables and shouting uncontrollably. We offered one last chance for him to apologise and it wasn’t taken.”

Anderson told the Southern Reporter: “He’d been asked for two years to look into complaints received by the community council about Berwickshire Housing Association.

“At the meeting, we asked him ‘have you been in touch with them?’ and he admitted he hadn’t. He started arguing with Jan Weeks and Lucy Anderson. He started jumping forward and punching the table in front of Jan. I shouted at him, and he stopped. He banged the table with both hands and started aiming in my direction and looking towards me because Jan was behind me. He called Jan a ‘moaning woman’.”

Fullarton had not replied to The National by the time we went to press. He told the Souther Reporter: “This case is currently under examination, so I am unable to comment at this stage.”

The council said: “This is a matter for the Commissioner.”