'Grab-a-cab' Tory in £3,500 claim for travel
13 May 2011
One of Britain's highest paid councillors was under fire today for claiming thousands of pounds in expenses for taxi and car journeys.
Brian Coleman was handed almost £3,500 of taxpayers' money last year for journeys that included ferrying his mother to events in cabs.
The Barnet Tory councillor claimed the expenses as chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. Of the eight members on the authority, only two others claimed any expenses whatsoever and the second highest claim was almost 10 times less than Mr Coleman's.
Today the Mayor said he was "disappointed" to hear about Mr Coleman's latest claims.
A spokesman for Mr Johnson said: "The Mayor is disappointed with Brian Coleman, does not approve of his extravagant expenses and has made this clear to him. Only members of the London fire and emergency planning authority, however, can tighten the expenses regime relevant here. We'd encourage them to do so."
In 2008, Mr Coleman, who is said to earn almost £120,000 a year, was criticised for running up a taxi bill of £8,231 as an Assembly member, including a £656 bill on one day. He was nicknamed "grab-a-cab Coleman" by his colleagues who used public transport or bicycles.
His latest expenses reveal he claimed nearly £700 on congestion charge fees last year.
At the same time he was spending hundreds of pounds of taxpayers' money on taxi, some with his mother Gladys, 88, who often accompanied him to formal events.
When Mr Coleman was Mayor of Barnet for a year until May 2010, he made his mother the mayoress. In December last year he spent more than £135 on a taxi for them to go to a carol service at St Paul's Cathedral.
The previous month he claimed just under £150 for four taxi journeys on the same day, including at least one with his mother to go to a remembrance service.
On one occasion last year Mr Coleman also spent nearly £50 on a cab from City Hall in London Bridge to Westminster, a Tube journey of just three stops.
The fire authority expenses guidelines state that members can only claim for a taxi if it "was used in a case of urgency or if there was no public transport reasonably available".
In May 2010 he spent nearly £70 on taxis taking him to a lunch in Belgravia. The same day, he also charged taxpayers for the congestion charge and for mileage after driving to a meeting in Southwark. In a letter to London Mayor Boris Johnson yesterday, Labour Assembly member John Biggs wrote: "This frivolous use of public money is nothing short of outrageous."
Mr Coleman said today: "I do not claim for a travel card on the underground any more. If you look at all the claims across City Hall I am one of the most moderate." His Assembly expenses were just £43 last year, down from more than £3,500 in 2008-09.
Source; http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/ ... r-taxis.do
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