Campaigners dressed as Father Christmas gathered to protest about cuts and outsourcing.

The protest took place outside Hendon Town Hall last night, before the final full council meeting of the year.

The crowd waved placards, which read "January sale Barnet Council everything must go", and chanted "Hey, ho, this Tory council's got to go". 

Times Series:

Barnet Borough Council’s budget for the next five years was passed during the meeting, including plans for £73.5m of cuts by 2020. The budget will go out to public consultation.

Trade union Unison claims the proposals will see 81 per cent of the council’s staff outsourced – leaving 332 staff employed by the authority.

Speaking before the meeting, John Burgess, general secretary of Barnet’s Unison branch, said: “In the end, with the way councils are going, what’s the point of these meetings if you don’t run these services anymore?

“What I see is a clear attack on the work force. I struggle to see how we can be the sixth richest economy in the world, and yet we are in this race to the bottom. It’s just appalling.”

Earlier this month, Councillor Richard Cornelius, leader of Barnet Council, said the authority’s spending power would halve over the course of the decade.

He added: “I defy anyone to get by on half their income without having to make changes. We cannot bury our heads in the sand.”