More than 550 people have signed a peace campaign petition criticising Barnet Council for investing in companies involved in the arms trade.

Secretary of the Finchley and District Peace Campaign, Gardi Vaswani, said 558 people signed the petition over the summer, before she sent it to council leader Victor Lyon.

"Many people were quite shocked because they didn't know what was happening," she said.

Mrs Vaswani said the council invested in at least three FTSE 100 companies which were responsible for constructing and selling attack aircraft.

She said: "The three companies are BAE Systems, GKN and the Smiths Group. I think the Smiths Group are involved in the sale of F16 fighter planes to the Middle East. GKN are attack helicopter manufacturers.

"We have been writing to the council to change their investment policies for years.

"They just say they need to invest in the companies which give the biggest return."

Councillor Tony Finn, cabinet member for resources, said: "I am sure some companies we invest in do have a link directly or indirectly to the arms trade.

"But if they are producing arms for legitimate governments, agreed by the UK Government then that's ethical as far as I am concerned the ethics being that we are doing the best for our pension fund holders.

"Our pension fund managers, Shroders and Henderson, are reputable companies and will not invest in anything that's totally unethical. They have their own ethics committees and we are guided by them."

The petition will go before the council's general functions committee, which is responsible for pension fund investment, on November 26.

A spokesman for the Smiths Group said its involvement was limited to supplying electronic parts to an American aircraft manufacturer which makes F16s and that the company had no control over where the aircraft were sold.

October 1, 2002 17:30