The Conservative council leader in Hillingdon has hit back at Labour claims he is "dictatorial."
Ahead of Thursday's (May 3) local elections, in which 65 seats are up for grabs across 22 wards, Labour 's manifesto says it's "time for a change" to a more "co-operative" form of government after 20 years of Tory rule.
It states: "We believe that after 20 years of Conservative control it's time for a radical change that will see the control of the council move from a dictatorial leader and his cabinet to a more community based co-operative council that empowers residents to work in partnership with the council that they have elected."
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Hillingdon Council leader Ray Puddifoot , who is standing for Ickenham ward and will run for Conservative leader again, has responded saying people want strong leadership rather than a slow, cumbersome decision making process.
He said: "They [Labour] don't like strong leadership and want the council to go over to a committee system. This is very democratic, but people elect representatives to make decisions for them and they don't necessarily want you going back to them every day asking what should be done."
Mr Puddifoot says under his leadership, where decisions were made largely through the cabinet, or, in a crisis, between himself and the chief executive, the council was able to take very swift action.
He cites the aftermath of the Grenfell tower disaster as an example. Work to replace doors in apartments and tower blocks got underway very swiftly, he says, because decisions were approved by the council's cabinet and did not have to go through the lengthy debating process of a committee system.
"When this was raised at council Labour said they wanted to form a committee to discuss what should be done, but we had already started work replacing the doors with new fire doors," said Mr Puddifoot. "Then they raised it again at the next council meeting."
Labour's leader in the borough, Peter Curling , a candidate for Townfield ward, has said he thinks Labour has a good chance of increasing its number of seats at Thursday's (May 3) elections, breaking out of 'fortress Hayes ' - the seats it controls in the south and reaching into Uxbridge the Tory hinterlands in the north.
But speaking to the BBC Local Democracy service, Mr Puddifoot said he thinks Labour's campaign is relying on national issues such as what's happening with Windrush or relations with Russia, rather than solving local problems.
"They are using national Labour policies to cover what they don't have at local level," he said.
"We're standing on our local record. It's not about what happened in Salisbury or about Jeremy Corbyn , it's about what we're delivering in Hillingdon.
"This is about local issues, not about national Right and Left. It's about what things are best for the residents of Hillingdon.
"It's about the fact that we've frozen council tax for the past ten years.
"It's about the fact we've been rebuilding and refurbishing every library and we've had the best parks in the UK for the past five years and have the safest roads in London.
"We've got the cheapest parking in London and we don't have the adult social care issues and the problems with discharging people from hospital that other boroughs face."
Mr Puddifoot says the secret to the council's ability to provide these services when most other boroughs are looking to make sweeping cuts in line with declining government funding, is good financial planning.
"Nothing' in Labour's manifesto shows they would 'improve' on what we're doing"
An accountant himself by trade, he says the council has saved funds so it can judiciously use its balances and reserves to fill gaps in funding.
"We know we've got to save about £10 million in the coming year, but if you've got money in balances you can use that to plug the gap and you don't have to look to cut services," he said.
He also says creative thinking about spending can help, such as with the council's policy of building and overhauling bowling clubs - not just, he says, because they provide people with entertainment, but because they provide the kind of interaction and support network that can help keep some elderly people less reliant on social services.
"There's nothing in Labour's manifesto that shows they would improve on anything we're doing," he added.
Details of all the candidates standing and how to vote in Hillingdon can be found here .
