Manners maketh the man, or so they say. Sadly, Brian Coleman seems to enjoy giving taxpayers the impression he does not have any.

His rude response to Gary Sakol’s letter was a disgraceful display of how elected representatives should not behave.

Mr Sakol and the other 290 East Finchley taxpayers deserve to have their concerns and ideas heard and discussed by a council committee. (See related link).

That is the democratic way. One person deciding an idea is not viable and dismissing it out of hand is more akin to a dictatorship.

Our reporter had barely moved on to his second sentence before Brian Coleman hung up.

By choosing not to explain to this newspaper why this idea should not be discussed at a council meeting Conservative Councillor Coleman again showed breathtaking arrogance.

He is an elected councillor. He is duty-bound to explain his decisions to taxpayers and should have done so through this newspaper.

Instead we were left to call the council’s press office which knew nothing of the issue or the row Councillor Coleman’s childish response had started.

The press office gave us a one line answer and I guess the council now considers the matter closed.

It seemed more concerned with the wording of the statement and how we were going to report it than the feelings of those Councillor Coleman had offended.

So what of Mr Sakol’s letter and the trouble he took to put his point to the council?

What of the feelings of the 290 taxpayers who feel so strongly about this subject they signed a petition only to see it dismissed out of hand by one councillor?

What of Councillor’s Coleman’s rude response? Will he get away with it again?

While we were attempting to find out, Councillor Coleman was on Radio 2 discussing the Occupy St Paul’s evictions.

Writing an in-depth response to Mr Sakol outlining why his idea was rejected out of hand would probably have taken as much time as his ten minute appearance on the Jeremy Vine show. Some would say it comes down to priorities.

While on Radio 2, Councillor Coleman also said: “If people want to change things in this country, they have to do it through the ballot box.”

I could not agree more.

Martin Buhagiar

Editor