For the first time in recent memory a Birmingham City Council leadership has secured positive headlines from a budget announcement which also included a potential 1,000 job losses and the scaling back of many services – including its iconic new library.

Until now the budget briefings have been all about the ‘end of local government as we know it’, ‘the jaws of doom’ and lots of grumbling of the ‘ Mr Pickles is being nasty to us again ’ variety.

So how did the leadership manage to spin out a positive result and leave at least some people thinking that something good has been achieved?

Well, they had a little help when the final grant cheque from the Department of Communities and Local Government dropped on the Council House doormat last week and turnout out to be £2.7 million more than previously thought.

Like most people receiving a cheque for a slightly higher amount than expected, the council immediately went out and spent the windfall. There was also a little raiding of the council cookie jar to bump the total to near £4 million.

Of course the lion’s share was ploughed into the ailing child protection department which will now see a £21 million budget increase next year – partly because the recent Government inspections found there was a significant level of ‘unmet need’ and social workers and their police and health service colleagues are being urged to bring more cases forward.

Another £1 million was also found to offset cuts in services for the disabled and those with mental health issues.

But they also found £600,000 to cancel cuts to school crossing patrols – the lollipop men and ladies. More than half of this cut had been earmarked a year ago and many lollipop staff had spent 12 months bracing themselves for redundancy from April.

With the election looming and MPs, particularly Richard Burden in Northfield, getting anxious and the Birmingham Mail weighing in with a campaign, the city council’s Labour leadership took the decision to reverse the cut – cue pictures of happy lollipop folk and cheering parents with small children now able to cross the road in safety.

The Tory opposition is right to point out this is only a 12-month deal and they could very well be ready to chop again in 2016.

There was still money left to allay city centre business fears over a planned 35 per cent hike in parking charges – the ten per cent now being implemented seems like light relief rather than the inflation busting hike it really is.

On the downside for Sir Albert Bore and his comrades there are the still damaging headlines around the revised £1.3 million cuts to the Library of Birmingham – resulting in a near halving of opening hours. This has turned what was an international PR triumph a few months back into a massive embarrassment for the city.

It is concerning that this may become a trend. It is frequently the case in negotiations that you have something in the tank, some room for manoeuvre. Given the positive spin this time, what would prevent the council leadership next autumn threatening to shut down whole facilities in its draft budget – perhaps the Library or maybe a park or two – only to come back after the inevitable protests with an 11th hour rescue package saying ‘we have listened’?

***

Eyebrows were raised at the planning committee this week when hard-working local councillor Keith Linnecor asked for a travel plan to be drawn up by the developer of a single bungalow.

Quite what dramatic impact the elderly couple moving into this little property would have on the local transport network is anyone’s guess.

It turns out the Oscott Labour councillor had mixed up his responses on two planning applications – and meant to raise questions about a pair of protected trees on the site.

“That’s the trouble with preparing too much,” he explained.

***

Coun Waseem Zaffar
Coun Waseem Zaffar

Three months out from the local elections there are still a number of Labour councillors who are not certain they will be defending their seats on May 7.

The battle for safe inner city seats – the kind of places which would vote Labour if a shop window dummy in a red rosette stood – is always fierce and since last summer I have been given a drip feed of rumours, gossip, slurs and allegations of wrongdoing by various potential candidates against each other. It appears that one of the bitterest of feuds in Lozells and East Handsworth ward has provoked the intervention of Labour’s National Executive Committee – meaning that sitting councillor Waseem Zaffar, who has fallen out with former ally Khalid Mahmood MP, is now favourite to secure the candidacy and bid for a second term.

Still under threat are Tony Kennedy in Sparkbrook, Habib Rehman in Springfield and Paulette Hamilton in Handsworth Wood.

Again, there are unsubstantiated claims of underhand dealings, robustly denied by the regional Labour Party who say it is just legitimate competition for good seats. Party officials are keen to do everything by the book to avoid any nasty and embarrassing legal issues down the line.

Back in the summer I suggested that open primary elections would be the way forward in safe seats or modern day rotten boroughs and have seen nothing since then to convince me otherwise.