Throughout a decade of tightening budgets and the significant reductions in some services outlined in the recent National Audit Office report on financial sustainability, it is to councils' remarkable credit that public satisfaction has remained so consistent.

In the Local Government Association's (LGA) most recent survey on the subject, taken October 2017, 65% of respondents remain satisfied overall with the way their council runs things. Similarly, the LGA's survey suggests two thirds of respondents also trust their councils ‘a great deal' or ‘a fair amount'. These results demonstrate the strength and resilience of our local institutions. Given these statistics, it would be easy to become complacent.