Barnet Alliance for Public Services (BAPS) is to lobby councillors with their concerns about Barnet Council’s One Barnet policy tomorrow.

Members of BAPS are going to attend the surgeries of Underhill and High Barnet councillors at Chipping Barnet Library, Stapylton Road, from 10.30am until 12pm.

They will express their concerns about the controversial One Barnet privatisation policy which they claim could see 90 per cent of council staff being transferred to the private sector.

BAPS will also present councillors with their Our Barnet residents bid.

BAPS coordinator, Tirza Waisel, said: “Barnet Council has never asked residents whether they want up to 90 per cent of services to be outsourced to private companies.

“If companies such as BT and Capita are allowed to bid for £750m of our money to run our services, why can’t residents put in a ‘bid’ too?

“Our bid proposes, instead of outsourcing, to keep services in-house and to improve them in consultation with residents, service users and staff.

“We believe we can save money, keep control and have better services.”

BAPS will also present the councillors with a copy of a recent study into Barnet Council procurement and contract management by the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE).

It concluded: “The evidence considered in this report indicates that there can be little confidence that Barnet has the capability, and perhaps more worryingly the culture, necessary to meet the challenge posed by the letting and management of contracts that, under the One Barnet plan, will be far bigger than anything the Council has previously dealt with.”

Saturday’s lobby is part of a programme of events throughout the autumn, aimed at gathering signatures on a petition asking Barnet Council to put the One Barnet plan to a referendum of residents.