Following the recent council elections, there are many instances where no one party has an absolute majority. Such situations are not new. When I was group leader on Bedfordshire CC, it was hung following three consecutive elections without a formal administration and yet major change and new policies were successfully implemented.

Being hung does not have to paralyse an authority and neither should it send politicians or senior officers into panic. As was the case in Bedfordshire at the time, being hung ended a very long period of control by one party – so it challenged complacency and allowed for new thinking and new policies.