Brian Coleman and road safety: Partingdale Lane update

Last year I blogged about the controversial road safety record of Conservative London Assembly Member Brian Coleman, he also of the exorbitant expense claims. One of the issues I highlighted was Partingdale Lane which had been closed to traffic on safety grounds:

He insisted on opening the road, had to think again after the courts ruled against the policy (with the judge directly criticising Brian Coleman’s behaviour), then saw £250,000 spent on safety measures, even after all that the road sees regular accidents though Brian Coleman claimed that residents had faked a car accident. Oooh, conspiracy. And a big bill. Keeping the road closed would not only have avoided accidents, it would have saved £250,000 on the road works, and it would have saved the extra money spent on the court case, consultations and so on.

Several more months on, how is Brian Coleman’s expensive insistence on reopening the road looking? Not so good, for as the Hendon Times reports:

A CAR and motorbike crashed in a Mill Hill road beset by controversy this week.

The Honda Jazz and a Suzuki motorbike collided in Partingdale Lane on Monday.

Emergency services were called to the road and paramedics treated minor injuries on the scene.

The accident is the sixth in Partingdale Lane since it was controversially reopened to through traffic.

Meanwhile, he has also come under fire in the local papers for his expense claims:

THE London Assembly’s audit panel has called for stricter guidelines to govern the taxi expenses claimed by members, following the controversy consistently stoked by Brian Coleman.

Navin Shah, the chairman of the panel insisted yesterday that assembly members need to start “practicing what they preach” and suggested more rigorous rules governing taxi expenses.

Mr Shah said: “We do feel extremely unhappy and aggrieved at the level of taxi expenses clocked up by Brian consistently.” …

Mr Coleman said: “I think this is the usual muck-raking nonsense.”