Labour press for no confidence vote in Barnet Council leader

Thursday, 25 October 2012

By Daniel O’Brien

LABOUR councillors have called for a vote of no confidence in a bid to unseat Conservative council leader Richard Cornelius over the controversial One Barnet programme.

Labour group leader Alison Moore has submitted a motion for Barnet Council to hold an extraordinary council meeting to discuss the plan for a raft of services to be handed over to private contractors.

The motion, which was submitted on Wednesday afternoon, asks the council to agree that “the process to outsource 70 per cent of council services in two large contracts under One Barnet has been dogged by a lack of transparency”.

It also questions the programme’s ability to make savings and accuses the process of being dogged by in-fighting and a lack of leadership.

Earlier this month, the Conservative leader of Cornwall Council was ousted by his own party over its £300m outsourcing project, One Cornwall.

On Tuesday, the West Country councillors voted unanimously to halt the privatisation plan.

Ms Moore said: “So many of these large-scale outsourcing projects and privatisations are failing or running into problems, and yet the Barnet Tories are just carrying on regardless. They need to stop and learn the lessons before risking £1billion of council taxpayers’ money.”

A council spokeswoman confirmed that an extraordinary meeting will be held at 6pm on November 6 before the full council meeting at Hendon Town Hall.

Mr Cornelius was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.

Email: daniel.obrien@nlhnews.co.uk

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