Borrows back in court on driving charge

Whanganui MP Chester Borrows appeared in Whanganui District Court on Monday facing a charge of careless driving causing injury.

Mr Borrows, who is deputy speaker of Parliament, is charged under his birth name Kerry James Borrows. He has pleaded not guilty.

He allegedly drove into protesters Tracey Treadwell and Denise Lockett outside Whanganui's Collegiate Motor Inn in Liverpool Street on March 22.

Ms Treadwell - who was treated at Whanganui Hospital after the incident - and Ms Lockett were among a group of protesters opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Mr Borrows was at the Motor Inn attending a breakfast meeting of the Whanganui Chamber of Commerce with Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett.

He drove away from the meeting with Ms Bennett as his passenger and was leaving the Motor Inn driveway when the alleged incident occurred.

Various arguments were presented in court on Monday, all of them suppressed.

Judge Jim Large made no decision. The matter comes up again in the Whanganui court on November 17, with all attendance excused.