The almost regular appearances of Sir Albert Bore at press conferences, his brow furrowed as he contemplates the end of local government as we know it, are starting to cause ripples in his Labour group.

His eagerness to shout that the fall-out from the equal pay bombshell could leave the city council bankrupt, unless a government bailout is forthcoming, has particularly angered some backbenchers.

It is thought that he is softening up the comrades and preparing the ground for what will inevitably come as s600 million, about half the councils adjustable revenue budget, is cut and services previously taken for granted have to go.

The budget roadshow will take this message of doom to the masses at a series of public meetings next month.

The cuts need to start being made now so that the pain is lessened down the line is the argument being put.

Another school of thought in the group suggests that rather than worry about bills which are still years away from being due Sir Albert should get the council through the next year or so and, with prospects of a change in government and economic upturn, hope the worst may never happen.

Sir Alberts loyal supporters say that their colleagues just dont get it and that the days of salami slicing services need to end now instead of cutting opening times at libraries as has been managed up to now, they need to consider closing entire libraries.

But this sort of thing flies in the face of traditional Labour instinct. Cutting public services is not something that Labour politicians do.

So the opponents, generally the crowd who supported Sion Simons aborted elected mayor bid, are now sounding out fellow backbenchers to see who is up for a battle with Sir Alberts leadership over the budget.

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As police commissioner Bob Jones takes up his new role this week the rest of the political world is still reeling from an election in which just over one in ten of the population bothered to take part.

We are used to seeing local election turnout figures in the 30 per cent area across Birmingham, and in some inner city areas that falls to under 20 per cent. But this lack of engagement plumbed a whole new level of apathy, or ignorance, or both. There was also a relatively high number of people who spoiled their papers with essays and commentary on their disapproval of bringing party politics into policing.

Even Conservative candidate and runner-up Matt Bennett admitted disappointment with the Governments efforts to promote police commissioners.

After declaring that it is not easy being Conservative at the moment, he said that he believes in bringing democracy into policing but that the Government cannot escape its responsibility for the lack of publicity and its failure to engage the public.

The fact that the even the Government seemed embarrassed by the whole affair makes it all the more harder for the new police commissioners to carry out the role as effectively as they might have.

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The latest contribution to the councils cost-saving business transformation plan will see the counter-intuitive issuing of state of the art Apple iPads to members of planning committee.

I understand the training has gone well and even the luddites, councillors James Hutchings and Keith Linnecor among them, are getting to grips with it after a slow start.

A journalists instinct is to jump and down about public servants getting fancy computer kit at OUR EXPENSE, but in this case there is, it appears, some very good justification at least for the planning committee.

The committee meets for three hours every two weeks and never takes the long summer or Christmas breaks enjoyed by other committees. For each of these meetings an agenda of about 200 pages is produced, covering 20 or so planning applications in some detail, with additional material on planning policy, legal appeals and the like. It is the equivalent of a reasonable paperback book printed, bound and posted to the 15 committee members and assorted support staff. The cost of this is about s10,000 a year, as well as the loss of a tree a month.

With the iPads costing s11,000 to buy, followed by support costs for the following years, the taxpayer starts saving by year three.

However councillors on other committees which do not produce such back-breaking agendas with such frequency may not be able to make as strong a business case to get their hands on some fancy kit.