It used to be the case that the onset of the six-week school holiday was accompanied by a similar winding down of all things at the local authority.

Senior officials and politicians would disappear on their holidays with a farewell and promise to "see you in September" and very little would happen at an executive level.

But this year is very, very different with Birmingham City Council and its immediate neighbours having a whole series of issues to overcome at the moment.

September sees a series of deadlines lining up for council leader Sir Albert Bore and his executive team:

- The combined authority and devolution bid to government must be finalised - with or without a bid for a metro mayor - which involves a high degree of diplomacy between the region's council leaders

- The submission on new ward boundaries must be agreed, either by his Labour group or even on an all-party basis

- By September 11, a progress report must be submitted to the Independent Improvement Panel following its highly critical assessment of his political leadership

The council's under-pressure leader hosted a lengthy meeting with his Labour group this week, updating them on the Sutton Coldfield Town Council referendum, the progress towards a combined authority and metro mayor, the Boundary Commission report suggesting they have 20 too many councillors and, most importantly, the critical assessment of Sir Albert's own leadership by the panel.

There are as many different versions of the meeting as the 45 to 50 councillors who attended. It was at times heated and angry but it seems the majority are backing Sir Albert and have some sympathy he was harshly singled out for criticism.

It is also widely felt there is no stand-out successor who can make a difference at this stage. Many complain the Kerslake report's conclusions were as much about the council's officials not knowing their place and their resistance to change.

As a result, a majority of the reforms have revolved around internal management culture, structures and attitudes.

Of course, Sir Albert would never confirm that, knowing full well he has to keep the panel happy or risk them calling for government intervention this autumn.

The suggestion is he is like a hostage desperate not to risk punishment by provoking his demanding overseers - so he soldiers on.

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Despite being one of the few council services to be awash with cash and new investment in this age of austerity, the city's refuse collection service is still trundling towards a £3.8 million overspend, according to this month's budget update.

Not only did the department get a £30 million government grant to replace all its trucks, introduce modern IT systems and set up a wheelie bin service (something many other councils have achieved with little fuss and without the aid of grant funding), it still manages to hit the headlines for the wrong reasons.

The poor handling of green waste charges has been well documented and recently the Local Government Ombudsman found the department had unreasonably demanded elderly people drag heavy bins down very steep steps - something even its own staff were not prepared to do.

An explanation given at the cabinet meeting this week is that the rollout of wheelie bins across the north of the city has been more problematic than anticipated and extra agency staff were needed to help out.

Last year the service was allowed to run over budget, partly because extra investment was demanded to head off political fallout. One wonders if this is becoming a permanent state of affairs.