TWO local councils are involved in a diplomatic row over when the Skipton mayor should be seen in his full civic regalia.

Skipton Town Council has been told that from now on the mayor must seek permission from the chairman of Craven District Council to attend events outside of town.

A new protocol states that the mayor will not be able to wear robes and chains if he is at the same function as the chairman of the district council.

Town mayor Andrew Rankine and chairman of Craven District Council Ken Hart were both invited to the recent reopening of Long Ashes in Threshfield.

For the first time ever Coun Rankine was told he needed consent from the district council to be able to attend and was then refused permission to wear the full mayoral red robes and chains.

He eventually felt forced to decline the invitation and refused to attend claiming that the regalia was central to the honour of being mayor and without them he would just be an onlooker.

The protocol sent out to parish and town councils in Craven states that the rules will extend to all parish chairmen and town mayors.

Coun Rankine thought there had been rumblings of bad feeling regarding the presence of both dignitaries at local events since the Duke of Wellington's Freedom and Havercake marches held in Skipton.

He claimed Craven District Council asked him not to wear full regalia at the event but he refused to attend without it. The parade was a Skipton event organised primarily by the town council.

In hierarchical terms, the chairman of the district council is the first citizen of the district and the council thinks that as such he, or she. should be given precedence over all people in the district, except the Queen or the Queen's representative.

Town council clerk Andrea Adams sought advice from the Yorkshire Local Councils Association, who in turn spoke to the association's solicitors.

Secretary of YLCA Ian Strong said the only law on the subject gave precedence to the borough/district mayor or chairman within his own area. But he said the wearing of the civic insignia was not affected by the act and was a matter of custom.

"The district cannot control when and where insignia is worn. The protocol cannot be justified and the district has no right to seek to impose it upon local councils," he said.

Colin Iveson, democratic services manager at Craven District Council, told the Herald that the chairman of the district council could not wear chains outside of his own district because he only had standing within his own area.