THE leader of Barnet Council has written to the Tory minister in charge of local government asking for extra cash to help with an “extremely challenging financial position”.

Councillor Lynne Hillan penned the note to Eric Pickles in mid-January in a bid to get more cash for school classes and to fund a round of 340 planned redundancies.

The council has to find £54 million of savings over the next four years because of cuts to Government grants.

In the letter Cllr Hillan queries the amount the council pays towards other councils, while bemoaning the fact Barnet receives one of the lowest amounts per head of any London borough.

She also criticises the grant of £9.5m to help develop new school places for the increasing population against council estimates of £50m needed.

She writes: “We have no option but to provide additional school places for our growing population and we urgently need additional Government support to enable us to meet our statutory requirements.”

There are also issues with the Government only allowing “capitalisation” of £2.3m of the £30m either invested in a bankrupt Icelandic bank and money to be paid for planned redundancies this year.

The process allows businesses to add something which would have been an expenditure or write-off to the balance sheet as an asset.

The letter adds: “Capitalisation is an essential element of our financial strategy giving us some flexibility in dealing with an extremely challenging financial position.

“We urge you to reconsider your decision on this, and understand that you might wish to stipulate that only capital receipts, rather than borrowing, are used to finance the relevant expenditure.”

It finishes: “In closing I should add that we very much welcome the ending of ringfencing, the new homes bonus, and the direction of travel of your local government finance review, and look forward to making a success of these initiatives in Barnet.”