Ken stops funds to 'loony right'

3:18pm Thursday 15th April 2004

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has withheld £1.5million of funding from Barnet Council as the row over its controversial policy of ripping out road safety measures deepens.

The money represents about 30 per cent of the borough's £5.15m Transport for London (TfL) grant for 2004-5. Some £3.1m of this was earmarked for resurfacing work including reinstating safety features such as road tables removed during resurfacing.

According to Councillor Brian Coleman, cabinet member for the environment, it is not yet clear what effect the move will have on the borough's road programme.

Mr Livingstone has taken the step of stopping the money after it emerged that the council was not putting the features back in after resurfacing was completed.

Other boroughs such as Enfield and Richmond upon Thames have quietly followed Barnet's lead in removing speed humps.

Mr Livingstone said: "Barnet's half-baked policies are putting children's lives at risk. London has one of the best road safety records in Europe and we are not going to allow that to be undermined by the loony right in Barnet Council.

"TfL will not fund schemes that jeopardise road safety or cuts things like cycle training for schoolchildren."

But Mr Coleman accused Mr Livingstone of playing party politics.

"We have no idea what this means for Barnet we haven't even had a letter about it yet. TfL are investigating. It's party politics and I expect the inquiry will quietly peter out after June 10 the day of the Greater London Assembly elections," he said.

Mr Livingstone added that safety policies in London have reduced the number of children under 16 killed or seriously injured on London's roads by 41 per cent between the levels seen in 1994-1998 and the 12 months to September 2003.

Editor's Choice