THE leader of Barnet Council has defended planned cuts set out in the published budget for the next three years.

Around £50m of savings will be made by the council as they look to plug a funding gap left by the withdrawal of government cash to local authorities.

The arts and children's services are particularly under pressure, with plans for large cuts as the council prepares to lose several important grants for those areas.

Around 400 council staff are expected to be made redundant by April.

Despite this council tax will be frozen this year in line with government pledges, with rises of 2.5 per cent planned for the next two years.

Around 60 per cent of the savings needed will be made through “efficiencies” according to the budget document, through rationalising services in the One Barnet mould.

Council leader Lynne Hillan said: “I wanted to make sure we froze council tax in these tough times and protected essential services. It would be delusional and an insult to our residents’ intelligence to suggest we could achieve this without making sweeping changes.

“Barnet is used to being efficient. We are already one of the most efficient in London. But these are tough times and the Public Sector is not immune from the challenges businesses have faced.

“This Budget keeps council tax down and protects services for the most vulnerable. That is why it is the best budget for Barnet”

Residents have been able to leave their feedback and plans for savings on the Barnet Ideas website.

Cllr Hillan added: “It has been very clear from our consultation with residents that they understand the need to make savings in our budget and that they want as many of these savings as possible to come from improvements in efficiency.

“Our priority in preparing this budget is safeguarding, protecting vulnerable adults and children, and that will mean some other services will have a disproportionate reduction in funding.

“Our challenge is to look at new ways of providing many of these services with reduced budgets."

The budget plans will go before cabinet on Monday and then voted on at a full council meeting on Tuesday.