A TOP Tory councillor has said it is “impressive” residents want to have their say on local issues after a huge march on Sunday.

Around 600 people joined the march through Finchley and a rally at the artsdepot to protest against a myriad of cuts planned by Barnet Council in the coming year.

Causes represented included local museums, children's centres, charities working with the disabled and mental health patients and sheltered housing residents scared of losing wardens.

Councillor Andrew Harper, deputy-leader of the council, said: “Whatever the number I think it's impressive people want to express their views.

“I hope they and all the residents interested recognise that, like every council in the country, we're facing cuts to our money and at the same time an increase in demand for a number of our services.

“We're trying to be very clear about a number of priorities where we're spending more money and taking savings in order to maintain a balanced budget over the next few years.”

He said to keep services at their current levels with the amount the government is cutting in grants would need a “30 per cent” increase in council tax.

At the rally critics accused the council of wasting millions of pounds in recent years, including a £27m deposit in an Icelandic bank and around £4m on the One Barnet project, which has not yet shown any savings.

But Cllr Harper rejected accusations of financial mismanagement adding: “If you look at what successive Conservative administrations have done since 2002 you see the bigger picture, we have made a lot of savings along the way and were preparing for the cuts to grants given from the government.

“We've been preparing for this eventuality for some years now and thinking about our priorities and about how to restructure services.

“As far as Iceland is concerned the money left in the deposits is still going through the Icelandic courts and we don't know what the outcome of that is going to be.”

He also said although many services were facing cuts, children's and adult social services were getting a boost in investment in some areas.

He added: “Our budget proposals include £2.5m in new investment in children's services. £1.5m we're going to use meeting the demographic pressures we're facing, with more children being referred to children's services.

The same with adult social services. We're putting another £2.4m to meet social care needs now we are seeing a growing older population.

“I believe these are the right priorities to deliver. We've created budget proposals thinking about our priorities and where we need to be spending our money.”