Barnet Council election 2014: Tories want ‘four more years’ to make One Barnet work

Barnet Conservatives will face the electorate for the first time since the launch of their controversial One Barnet outsourcing programme this week.

Cllr Daniel Seal, 31, bidding to be ­re-elected for the Tories in Garden Suburb ward, is hopeful residents will give his party another four years to oversee the long-term implementation of the scheme.

“It’s been a difficult four years after the mess Labour put us in [nationally],” said Cllr Seal. “We’ve had to make draconian cuts, we’ve had to take measures.

“Under Richard Cornelius’s council we have done a pretty good job. We are lowering council tax. I think we have tried to bring efficiency, the outsourcing model. Is it working? I think it is. We are asking the public to give us four more years.”

Cllr Seal is standing beside veteran Suburb Tory councillor John Marshall and new candidate Gabriel Rozenberg, who has stepped up to replace outgoing Tory councillor Andrew Harper.

He is optimistic the party will hold all six of its seats in Golders Green and Garden Suburb and is also feeling confident about Childs Hill, where long-serving husband-and-wife-team Lord and Lady Palmer are stepping down as Liberal Democrat councillors.

“I think residents voted for them rather than the Lib Dems because they were long-standing,” he said.

“I think we are going to see those seats coming back to the Conservatives and rightly so.

“If people want to have their council well-run, continuing to be efficient and want to make sure they have politicians who are going to make sure that the cost to the taxpayer is going to be a minimum, then vote for us. You’re in safe hands.”