A WORRIED Barnet Council worker told a public meeting about planned cuts last night she is “terrified” by plans to outsource several key departments.

Barnet Alliance for Public Services (BAPS) hosted a meeting where Professor Dexter Whitfield, a leading expert on the economics of outsourcing, warned the One Barnet plans could end up costing more than they save.

Barnet Council hopes to save £100m over the next decade by allowing private companies to run many key services, a plan dubbed as easyCouncil.

The woman said she works in regulatory services, the first department set to be taken-over and where workers are set to start industrial action today by refusing to answer calls and attend meetings with councillors.

She said: “Quite frankly I’m terrified by what the council’s doing. They don’t listen to what we say, we’re ignored.

“As an employee that frightens me a lot. I’ve got a very uncertain future. I live in the borough, I’ve got two kids and an awful lot of questions.”

Another man, who works in the Council tax collection department which is part of regulatory services, said it would be the first to be sold-off because it is “high performing”.

He said: “Our service has been told we’re high performing and providing a good service to the community as a whole.

“We’re being put out to private companies who don’t perceive any of that, the service will be mistreated and things will get very expensive for you.”

In the meeting Prof Whitfield warned the plans could have a “net cost to the public purse” instead of achieving their intended savings, pointing to the council’s past track-record .

He added: “The council has entered 44 public partnerships since 2001, five have been terminated, four have currently got major problems, that’s a 20 per cent track record which is inferior.

Some people may say 20 per cent isn’t that bad, but how many of you would buy a new car if you knew it had a 20 per cent chance of the wheels falling off the first time you drive it?”

He said the council could end up “beholden to the contractors” who would be large companies because of the way the procurement process has been structured.

It could also be harder to get information from the council on public services, he warned, because they could use the excuse of “commercial confidentiality”.

Many of the 70-strong audience said they would like to draw up an alternative strategy to tackle the planned cuts to put to councillors, an agreed to regular weekly meetings at the Greek Cypriot Brotherhood Meeting Hall in Britania Road, North Finchley.