Party time

[Martin Cassini]

The Standard reports a party thrown by BJ for outgoing TfL roads boss, David Brown (salary: £316,655 pa). An unnamed TfL spokesperson claimed Brown was "a first-class manager who has saved London £100s of millions". Funny, 1000 new sets of traffic lights, each costing £150,000 + running costs, sprang up under Brown’s watch. He refused to appear on my Newsnight report, and always resisted my calls for lights-off trials, e.g. one in 2005, which had the backing of Brent. Our Portishead trial proved that 'no lights' is over twice as efficient as signal control, with no loss of safety. So Brown's signals could be said to halve efficiency, as well as increase fuel use and emissions. So how it can be claimed that Brown did anything but cost us money is a mystery. Who paid for the £6,000 party? You and me.