Barnet Borough Council's Conservative leader has slammed the opposition Labour Group for failing to put forward an alternative budget.

Barnet Council met last night to set its budget for 2015/16, which was pushed through on the casting vote of the Mayor and includes a council tax freeze and £17.3m of cuts.

Barnet’s sole Liberal Democrat councillor Jack Cohen put forward an alternative budget during the meeting, which included money to protect the library service, a reduction in director and senior officer posts and cuts to councillors’ allowances.

Leader of Barnet Council Councillor Richard Cornelius said: “Last night was conclusive proof that the Labour Party has no alternative and no plan.

“It is remarkable that an opposition party, claiming to be a credible voice and having whinged so consistently, should fail to table even an amendment, let alone a full alternative plan.

“They still cannot be honest with residents about the council’s finances or what they would actually do if in office. Thanks to the committee system Labour councillors have had access to all the same information as the Conservatives and have had months to work up their own suggestions.

“While Cllr Moore rattled off a hurried list during her speech, she was clearly not confident enough in the merits of her proposals or in the security of her figures to lay them open to democratic or public scrutiny.”

Cllr Cornelius added: "If Labour had won the vote last night, the council would have failed to set a budget at all and in so doing would have broken the law."

Labour leader Councillor Alison Moore defended the decision not to put forward an alternative budget at the meeting.

Cllr Moore said the group had prepared a “fully costed” budget validated by an officer, including cutting spending on agency and consultancy staff and scrapping committee costs, but chose not to put it forward following the defeat of a Labour motion calling for a halt to library cuts.

Cllr Moore said: “We did the work to ensure the library proposal would have been covered financially. We made it very easy for them to accept that proposal. They let down the people of Barnet in doing that.

“There was a valid budget amendment to move but frankly we were arguing against their budget and there was no merit at that point in moving it. We had lost the argument with them. They voted against a common sense proposal to halt and look again at the library proposal.”

Cllr Moore rebutted Cllr Cornelius’s claims the party was not being “honest” about the council’s finances.

She added: “We debated it (the budget) and we made it clear why we rejected it. That’s not dishonest. We made sure the library and council tax support could have been costed.”