It's unsurprising that local government minister Jim McMahon is reluctant to launch into the next stages of council reorganisation when the one he has already started is barely off the ground.

Consensus is looking increasingly unlikely, while some districts have taken the offer to consider smaller structures in exceptional circumstances and stretched it to the extreme. At this rate, we could end up with more councils rather than less – or perhaps it is just filibustering in the hope the Government will lose the will to restructure.