Decision sticks in the throat.

A ROW has erupted after a local authority catering contract was awarded to a councillor's husband.

Staff at the new Durham unitary council are furious that a contract to provide refreshments after a service to mark the council's launch was not awarded to the authority's own caterers.

Instead it went to the husband of one of the authority's councillors.

Gavin Jopling, husband of Liberal Democrat councillor Pat Jopling, was awarded the contract - worth an estimated pounds 2,000 - to provide a buffet in Durham Town Hall after the service at Durham Cathedral last month.

Independent county councillor John Shuttleworth said: "It is a kick in the teeth for the council's hard-working staff." But Mrs Jopling, who lives with her husband in Howden-le-Wear, near Crook, insists she did nothing wrong.

She said: "I know how it looks and it may look bad, but we were invited to tender by the chairman of the council, Brian Myers, because the council's own catering department's bid was too high.

"The money for the buffet came out of the chairman's own budget and he has to watch what he spends. " A spokeswoman for Durham County Council said: "In line with the council's rules, three quotations for the buffet were obtained and the contract awarded to the lowest quotation."