Liverpool's politics has never been dull - but the last couple of years have been particularly eventful to say the least.
From the arrest of the former mayor to a historically appalling council inspection and moves which amount to a government takeover, it has been a difficult period for the city, its council and its politicians. But what can we expect for 2023?
The fall-out from that damning Max Caller inspection report will continue to impact the city council. A first round of all-out elections across the city will be held in May to elect councillors to a raft of new wards on a new electoral map. The city will also ditch the elected mayoral model that has been used to run the city since 2012.
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Here we take a look at the year just gone and look ahead to what should be a fascinating year ahead in Liverpool, with the help of University of Liverpool politics professor Jon Tonge.
What happened in 2022
As mentioned above, 2022 was another year in which the recovery from last year's Caller Report continued to dominate the local political scene.
In August, the ECHO first revealed that a partial takeover of Liverpool Council by government commissioners would become an effective full takeover. This would be confirmed in November with a new finance commissioner - Stephen Hughes - joining a bolstered team who now have powers over finances, governance and recruitment at the Cunard Building.
One big reason that the intervention was expanded to cover all financial matters came in the spring when it was revealed that a series of major errors over the renewal of the council's major electricity contract could cost the city an extra £16 million. The cock-ups will also hit the city's fire service and schools hard.
Shortly after the massive blunder was revealed, the city's finance director Mel Creighton resigned and she was followed out of the door weeks later by chief executive Tony Reeves after reports of ructions between the city's top officer and the commissioners.
Mr Reeves has since been replaced on an interim basis by Theresa Grant and the council is showing some tentative signs of improvement, with the commissioners stating earlier this month that they are "optimistic" that progress is being made.
Reflecting on matters in 2022, Professor Tonge said: "It has been another turbulent year, with signs of recovery towards its close. The Caller Report was one of the most damning indictments of any local authority, ever, so the council could only improve. The government commissioners have encountered a cooperative, constructive approach from the council leadership and this has helped.
"Finances have remained a mess though - and remember it was the failure to comply with Best Value requirements that led to the arrival of the commissioners. The failure to extend the council's energy contract was an embarrassing fiasco, costing millions - and indicative of continuing problems - hence the arrival of a finance commissioner."
Another big political story came when a number of Labour councillors quit their party to form a breakaway independent group on the council back in April. Five Labour rebels broke the Labour whip by voting against the party's budget plans and then joined with three former Labour councillors to create the Liverpool Community Independents group.
No more mayors
Another big moment in this year's political calendar saw the council vote to remove the position of elected mayor that has been in place to run the city since 2012.
A highly controversial process saw the ruling Labour group and its current Mayor Joanne Anderson choose not to hold a public referendum on the matter - as had been previously promised - and instead carry out a public consultation. Only around 4% of the city's voting population took part in the consultation and the results were far from clear.
Despite the option of retaining the mayoralty finishing top of the options offered, the ruling Labour group voted to scrap it in July and return to the leader and cabinet model from May 2023..
Professor Tonge said: "The mayor model should never have been introduced without a referendum in the first place - most other cities voted no to the idea - so I'm pleased to see a reversion to a leader and cabinet model. The council made a mess of the consultation process but at least got to the right decision in the end. A leader and cabinet model will be more collegiate. It will also remove the confusion over Liverpool having three mayors: metro, city and ceremonial."
Jo set to go
The removal of the mayoral position from May 2023 will also bring an end to current leader Joanne Anderson's time at the council. She had only been a backbench councillor for two years when she stepped up to take on the biggest political role in the city after the arrest and departure of her near-namesake Joe Anderson.
It was always going to be a tough and turbulent time for the unexpected mayor but Professor Tonge thinks she has given a good account of herself and helped to steady a very rocky ship. He also has high hopes for Labour's newly elected leader Liam Robinson who will hope to be the new leader of the city council after the May votes.
Professor Tonge said: "Joanne Anderson did her best in very difficult circumstances. She inherited a complete mess, had to wrestle with severe government funding cuts, not far shy of £100m during her tenure and sections of the ruling Labour group at times appeared in turmoil over the age-cold question of whether to comply with spending reductions or fight them, leading to some defections.
"Liam Robinson's elevation is a real boost for the city. He is sensible and has a good track record on transport. He also will work constructively with Steve Rotheram and the Liverpool City Region."
2023 - All out elections and a new city map
As well as lifting the lid on a host of failures and poor practices at Liverpool Council, the Max Caller inspection report of 2021 brought with it a host of recommendations for how things should be done differently going forward.
One of these concerns elections and from 2023 the council will move to holding all out elections - where every seat is up for grabs - every four years. This is a big change from the previous system in which elections would be held in three of every four years, with a third of council seats being elected each time.
There will also be a slight reduction in the number of councillors elected in the city - from 90 to 85. These councillors will be elected to a very different looking city map, full of newly named wards. While the city is currently divided up into 30 wards, with three councillors representing each ward, the new map will feature a majority of smaller, single-member wards.
You can see the full new ward map of Liverpool that will come into force from May onwards here.
So how will the elections go?
Professor Tonge predicts Labour will once again retain control of the council, but could lose a few more seats along the way. Giving his election predictions, he said: "The defections to the Liverpool Community Independents could possibly harm Labour. Some of those councillors are fairly popular local figures and could split the Labour vote.
The good news for Labour is that most of those defectors- not all - are likely to stand (assuming they do stand) in areas where the Liberal Democrats are fairly weak so it won't be a case of a split Labour vote gifting seats. The Lib Dems gained three seats at the last council elections in 2021 and might expect to make a gain or two and the Greens might also be hopeful of at least one gain. Labour will certainly retain overall control but predicting the exact result is difficult given it will be an all-count contest fought across new wards."
Giving his view on the changing electoral map, he added: "Whilst the reduction in council size and all-out elections are not bad ideas, having some wards with two or three councillors is not good. People will wonder why Ward X can be represented by a single councillor, as will be most common, but Ward Y will have two, or even three. It would have been better to have introduced a one ward, one councillor system."
Any other predictions?
Professor Tonge, who had developed a name for himself as a skilled predictor of politics, also gave us some other predictions for local politics in 2023.
He said: "If things go well, 2023 should be the last full year of Liverpool being under direct rule from Westminster. That needs to end in June 2024 as scheduled and the government needs to make its intentions clear during 2023.
"Eurovision will be a great advert for the city - but those hotel prices still need to come down! Merseyrail might even introduce the new trains we've been promised for the last 6 years! I can't fault the service - compared to Northern, Trans-Pennine and Avanti, Merseyrail is a model of efficiency, but goodness me, the trains are looking very, very dated."
"Liverpool hardly needs more politics bringing to it but in April it's happening anyway as the largest UK conference of political scientists ever (some 700) will be coming to the city (3-5 April)."
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