Brian Coleman arrest - Update

It appears that Councillor Brian Coleman has been granted bail by the police until next month.

The Evening Standard is reporting that "Friends of Brian Coleman" are saying that Mr Coleman suffered scratches and bleeding following the incident. The Barnet Eye understands that the Police have reviewed the CCTV footage and are sure this will cast light on who's version of events is most likely to be correct.

It appears that their may also be issues with an alleged traffic offence at the time of the incident, although the specifics of this are unclear. Again the CCTV footage will cast more light on this.

The Barnet Eye also understands that there were several extremely reliable witnesses in the vicinity who have given full accounts of what happened.

The Barnet Eye understands that Brian Coleman spent a considerable amount of time with the police discussing his account.  Whether the contents of the CCTV footage have been discussed with Mr Coleman is unclear. We trust Mr Coleman, as a long standing public servant, gave a completely accurate and honest account of what happened.

We have been informed that he presented himself to Barnet Police shortly after the incident and appeared keen to assist their enquiries, which must be commended.

The Barnet Alliance for Public Services have arranged a lobby of Conservative Councillors at Mill Hill Library tomorrow (Saturday 22nd September) between 10am and noon. The Barnet Eye will be presenting a letter calling on the Conservative Group at Barnet Council to adopt measures to improve the standards of councillor beahviour, in light of recent scandals. It is clear that there is an issue and we expect our representetives to behave impeccably. Please join us at Mill Hill Library, Hartley Avenue for the lobby tomorrow. BAPS will also be raising the issue of the lack of transparancy surrounding the One Barnet Program.

One final bit of news relating to Mr Coleman. The Barnet Eye saw one of our local Mill Hill Councillors this morning and briefly discussed Mr Colemans plight. It appears that our venerable councillor was lead to believe that Mr Coleman was set up and that lots of bloggers filmed the incident. The Barnet Eye pointed out that no one apart from Mr Coleman knew his plans for Thursday, so the chance of this happening is nigh on impossible. As far as the Barnet Eye is aware, the only footage of the events is from Barnet Council owned CCTV cameras and possibly local businesses. The Barnet Eye suggested that the "friends" who are putting these rumours around run the risk of making people repeating them look rather silly.