SECRET footage of residents at a meeting taken by a security company employed by Barnet Council has been “destroyed”.

Residents expressed their anger against MetPro Rapid Response, a private security firm, and their handling of a volatile meeting where councillors set the budget at Hendon Town Hall in March.

Later it emerged the black-shirted security guards, some of who were former soldiers, had been wearing lapel cameras taking secret footage of residents.

Residents had been told they would be thrown out of the same meeting if they attempted to take any footage, although several people managed to get pictures from inside the council chamber.

MetPro Rapid response went into administration at the end of last month and Barnet Council has since terminated the security contract and awarded it to a new company, Blue9.

Bloggers in the borough have now started a campaign calling for a public inquiry into the situation and the relationship between the company and the council.

It states: “We demand to know what Barnet Council asked MetPro Rapid Response/MetPro Emergency Response to do and what Barnet Council has done with any information about residents it has had access to as a result of MetPro’s work.”

A statement from the council said: “At no point has the council ever authorised security staff carrying lapel cameras.

“As soon as we realised MetPro had filmed on our premises without authorisation we asked them to send in their footage and destroyed it.”