Description
Barnet London Borough Council, also known as Barnet Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Barnet in Greater London, England. The council has been under Labour majority control since 2022. The council meets at Hendon Town Hall and has its main offices at 2 Bristol Avenue in Colindale.
History
There has been a Barnet local authority since 1863 when a local government district was created for the town of Barnet, also known as Chipping Barnet, governed by an elected local board. Such districts were reconstituted as urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894, which saw the board replaced by an urban district council.
The much larger London Borough of Barnet and its council were created under the London Government Act 1963, with the first election held in 1964. For its first year the council operated as a shadow authority alongside the area's five outgoing authorities, being the borough councils of Finchley and Hendon and the urban district councils of Barnet, East Barnet and Friern Barnet. The new council formally came into its powers on 1 April 1965, at which point the old districts and their councils were abolished.
The council's full legal name is "The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Barnet", although it styles itself as 'Barnet Council'.
From 1965 until 1986 the council was a lower-tier authority, with upper-tier functions provided by the Greater London Council. The split of powers and functions meant that the Greater London Council was responsible for "wide area" services such as fire, ambulance, flood prevention, and refuse disposal; with the borough councils (including Barnet) responsible for "personal" services such as social care, libraries, cemeteries and refuse collection. As an outer London borough council Barnet has been a local education authority since 1965. The Greater London Council was abolished in 1986 and its functions passed to the London borough councils, with some services provided through joint committees.
Since 2000 the Greater London Authority has taken some responsibility for highways and planning control from the council, but within the English local government system the council remains a "most purpose" authority in terms of the available range of powers and functions.
In 2012 Barnet outsourced many functions to Capita under what it called the 'One Barnet' programme. The scheme was controversial; a local resident tried to challenge the council's decision via a judicial review, but without success. Most of the outsourced functions were brought back in-house during 2023.
