THE leader of the Labour group was branded “a liar” in his absence last night in a dispute over the council’s bid to buy sub-standard houses along the A406.

Conservative councillor Henry Lamprecht alleged that Labour leader Jeff Rodin, who is currently in Cyprus, said at a meeting on Tuesday that the council did not intend to purchase a hundred of the 350 houses there because he wanted them to be demolished to make way for a three-lane motorway.

Permission for improvements to a section of the road, including widening to a two-lane dual carriageway, was given by the council in March, but the motorway scheme is one that has been mooted in the past.

In a full council meeting last night, Cllr Lamprecht, who works as a press officer for MP David Burrowes, said: “I happen to know there were three bids that went in at the time [in December] and I am confident every single property along that road will be transferred to a housing association. I say that Cllr Rodin is in fact a liar.”

Then he later added: “I will withdraw the word liar and say he was not telling the truth.”

The council announced it was bidding for £80m in December to “buy the properties to prevent residents from being made homeless and to improve the area”. However it did not confirm the exact number of properties.

Councillor Rodin told the Independent that he had in fact made the comment at an area forum meeting in March. The minutes of the meeting note that the issue was raised by Cllr Georgiou.

He said: “Enfield Council opposed the scheme put forward by Transport for London because they still want the major scheme. The understanding I had was that a hundred houses were to be excluded from the A406 bid. The officer on Tuesday evening said they were all now included.

“I have never lied. To lie I would have to know the truth and I didn’t know the certain position until the meeting on Tuesday.”

Asked if he knew why Cllr Lamprecht was accusing him of lying, he said that he’d previously accused Cllr Lamprecht of lying about funding for the restoration of Broomfield House in a newspaper column.

Last night, Council Leader Michael Rye said: “We are going to get money from the housing and communities agency. We are entirely committed to ensuring that all those properties will be furnished to a reasonable standard.”

Housing cabinet member Matthew Laban told the Independent last week that he was not confident however that the entire sum requested of £80m would be made available