Political

Brian Coleman and his taxi bills

Conservative GLA member Brian Coleman has been in the news a bit today, criticising Lynne Featherstone for calling out the Fire Brigade when she feared that her boiler might be about to explode after it started making loud noises and shaking the house. Personally, that’s exactly what I’d do in the same circumstances, and indeed that’s what the Fire Brigade has said people should do.

But what really intrigues me about Brian Coleman’s attempt to score a political point (and he really should know better than rubbishing the Fire Brigade’s own advice, what with being chairman of the Fire Authority) is his claimed concern about public money: “It costs £250 per hour for a call out and I look forward to receiving a cheque.”

Because, you see, this Brian Coleman is the very same Brian Coleman who runs up huge taxi bills at our expense on the GLA. As I blogged earlier this year about Brian Coleman:

Good news! Conservative London Assembly member Brian Coleman has cut his taxi bill by a fifth.

Bad news! He’s still racking up over £8,000 a year in taxi fares that Londoners then have to pay for.

P.S. He also gets a free travelcard.

P.P.S. Average taxi bill run up by other London Assembly members in the same period: £685.

One other fun Brian Coleman taxi bill stats: his taxi bill in April-December 2007 was just less than the taxi bill of all the other 24 GLA members plus the Mayor added together. Vroom, vroom!

Update:

Two interesting blog posts on this topic:

TrannyFattyAcid [link now defunct], who asked some firemen today on what someone should do in the situation Lynne found herself in. Their answer? Call 999.

London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon, who was present when Brian Coleman raised the issue with the Commissioner of the Fire Authority. The Commissioner’s verdict? The Fire Brigade would have judged the call and only sent an engine if they thought it worthwhile.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All comments and data you submit with them will be handled in line with the privacy and moderation policies.