THE leader of the Tory group at Harrow Council described the opposition’s financial plans as a “broken budget” on Wednesday evening.

The Labour-led council had to make spending cuts of £19 million for the financial year 2011/12.

The authority has been forced to strip cash out of its budget after the Government reduced its funding.

Council tax has also been frozen.

Councillor Susan Hall (Conservative) said she had concerns about the council spending £6 million on IT for council staff compared to £4 million on potholes.

She said: “Labour have presented a broken budget that lets down the people of Harrow. It’s underpinned by errors, fails to make the big decisions needed for the future, and cuts money from so many of the wrong places.

"The best bit of news for residents is the council tax freeze it includes, which comes directly from extra funding from the Conservative-led coalition government. Everything else is a return to the Labour of old.”

Council leader, Bill Stephenson (Labour), said there were still “difficult decisions” to be made in the future.

He said: “Although we have made a very good start in modernising the council and improving services, we still face very serious financial challenges particularly in years three and four, 2013-14 and 2014-15.

"We have to look forward and begin to address these issues now.

“We want to fully engage and involve local residents and all our local partners in helping to decide what sort of council we want and what sort of services should it provide in four years time.

“We want to stimulate a far reaching community discussion on the issues which concern them, such as, libraries, children’s centres, and sports provision where there will be significant opportunities and challenges. There will also be many other difficult decisions we will need to make.”