A CASTING vote was all that saved a councillor as a motion was put forward to see him resign over "inadequate" children’s services.

Labour councillors put forward a motion calling for the chairman of the children’s, education, libraries and safeguarding committee, Cllr Reuben Thompstone, to resign after Barnet’s children’s services were given an "inadequate" rating in their recent Ofsted report.

The voting was tied at 31 votes on each side, requiring the casting vote from Mayor Brian Salinger to Cllr Thompstone keep his position.

In her speech at the council meeting on Tuesday, Cllr Pauline Coakley Webb said: "Apologies are fine but that doesn’t get to the root of how we got to this situation in the first place or what drove children’s services to this precipice.

"If I had been lead member and such a catastrophic rating had been handed down on my watch I would have immediately offered my resignation. Has the lead member offered his resignation?

"Not to my knowledge."

Cllr Thompstone said the report recognised the services’ director, Chris Munday, as playing a pivotal role in moving the services in the right direction and noted that Labour councillors attempted to remove this role in its alternative budget.

He said: "This is another example of an incompetent Labour Group sniping from the sidelines without offering any constructive alternatives.

"The fact they wanted to sack the man responsible for actually turning around our children’s services shows just how little they can be trusted to run this borough."