Harrow Conservatives have announced a seven-point pledge in the run up to the local elections, as they seek to wrestle back control of the council on May 3.

The programme looks at typically key areas such as crime and housing, but also includes tailored policies relating to bin collections and free parking.

Cllr Paul Osborn, leader of Harrow Conservatives, said it is about providing residents with a better service than the one they have received under the previous Labour administration.

“We have been listening to local people and we know what needs to be fixed,” he said.

“When I became leader of the Conservative Group I promised to set out a positive vision for Harrow.

“Our pledges are designed to make life better for Harrow residents, they set out clearly what we intend to do and are all achievable.”

As well as increasing free parking to 30 minutes and reducing the brown bin collection cost to £40, his party vows to introduce more police in the town centre.

Its housing pledge moves away from what, it believes, is a skyscraper-dominated policy and the group wants to find a way to keep council tax down while improving services.

And, like Labour, it wants to tackle fly-tipping in Harrow. This point, Cllr Osborn argues, is a prime example of council failures over the past four years.

“There hasn’t been a coordinated approach, which is something that will change if we get into power,” he said.

“Sometimes it’s just about educating people – so many are unaware of the fact that it doesn’t cost that much for the council to come and take things away.

“And we need to put more money into enforcing the rules; people don’t feel as if there’s enough of a deterrent against fly-tipping.”

He criticised the previous administration’s attitude to policing and said its approach to housebuilding was at risk of “turning Harrow into Stratford”.

Labour staunchly defended its record in its 2018 manifesto.

It pointed out that it introduced the first council houses in a generation, helped more than 500 young people into work and supported more than 3,000 businesses through mentoring schemes.

It also highlighted the “relentless” cuts from the Conservative Government that have “hit local government hard”.

Cllr Sachin Shah, leader of Harrow Council, said he was “proud” of what Labour had achieved since 2014 in “times of huge cuts”.

“And yet the journey isn’t over,” he said. “Over the next four years we will need to go further and faster in making Harrow a fairer place, where people feel safe and secure.”