The rain, which some pointed to as a reason for the turnout, is pretty much a non-starter as a cause in academic circles.

Julia Higginbottom and the ‘yes’ campaign team have set themselves a target of 60 per cent turnout in five years.

It is an ambitious and worthy goal and one which all political parties, councillors, community activists and anyone with an interest in politics should support.

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Sir Albert Bore may have won a decisive victory in the local elections but the Labour man still had to make a special plea for outgoing Tory leader Mike Whitby to leave his office.

Last year the city council, under new laws designed to provide continuity at the top, appointed Coun Whitby as leader until 2014.

So there is no provision on the set agenda for the city council’s annual meeting on May 22, except perhaps via a humiliating vote of no confidence, to remove the leader.

Coun Whitby later jokingly admitted he was tempted not say anything and effectively squat in the leader’s office for another month.

But Sir Albert was too wily and, at their first meeting since the election, tried to discreetly raise the issue of the leadership handover.

He was like a shy teenager trying to get a date as he politely enquired whether they would mind and could they come to some arrangement for the baton to be passed on.

The awkwardness of asking his defeated rival for the keys to the office and executive car was apparent to all.

“I’m sure we can come up with some form of words to do this properly,” Coun Whitby said as the senior officers nodded in agreement.

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Award for the most stunning election result must go to Sutton Coldfield’s first ever Labour councillor Rob Pocock.

His first Sutton Coldfield battle was in the 2001 general election against Andrew Mitchell and a five figure majority.

In 2004, after a third local election defeat, the eternal optimist told me that he was whittling away the Tory majority and at that rate he would be elected by the mid 2030s.

The determined campaigner has achieved that 20 years ahead of schedule.

>More: Chris Game analyses the local election results - and how persistence paid off for Rob Pocock