As Liverpool heads into the middle of summer and temperatures start to sizzle, the city's troubled council is preparing itself for an unseasonable storm.
The next few weeks could bring some of the council's recent problems to a thunderous crescendo, with two explosive reports due to be published that could have far reaching consequences for the authority, its under-pressure leaders and the city they govern.
Liverpool Council's problems are well documented and seem to grow by the day. Four government commissioners were installed a year ago in the wake of the atrocious findings of a government inspection report led by Max Caller.
That report - one of the worst in the history of local government - exposed in brutal, unrelenting detail the mistakes, failures, mismanagement and waste that had been allowed to take place at the council in recent years. The departments of regeneration, highways and property management were the focus of the inspection, with atmospheres described as one in which ''the only way to survive was to do what was requested without asking too many questions or applying normal professional standards."
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That report led to the four commissioners being sent to Liverpool to oversee those departments and the council, with new political leadership in place, was put on a recovery plan that was expected to last at least three years and lead to root and branch reform.
But one year on and the council has faced further seismic issues, more mistakes, more money wasted and resignations. The commissioners imminent next report could bring with it another watershed moment for the city.
A leak to the Liverpool ECHO this week has offered a glimpse at what may come next, and it doesn't look good. The memo was part of a briefing pack from Catherine Frances, the director general of local government at the Department of Levelling Up, to the Secretary of State, Michael Gove.
Within the memo, Liverpool finds itself in the ignominiously titled 'Councils in Trouble' section, alongside Thanet and Northumberland. The briefing makes clear that 12 months into the government intervention, the commissioners in the Cunard are not impressed with the progress being made.
The note states: "The (next) report will be open about the scale of the leadership challenge and where the council has gone backwards rather than forwards. Commissioners do not yet have confidence that Liverpool City Council is on the right path to deliver best value and further government action will be required."
While some in the council may have been surprised to see a leak from the department arise just weeks before the report is published, they are unlikely to have been taken aback by the contents of the memo. It is pretty clear that something rotten remains in the state of Liverpool.
The aforementioned government memo also included a mention of the council's recent £16 million energy contract disaster. The saga is expected to feature prominently in the commissioners latest report. In fact, it is assumed that report has probably been delayed partly so the full, grim details of the debacle can be referred to fully.
For the uninitiated, we first reported in early May on a disastrous catalogue of mistakes regarding the council's electricity contract with Scottish Power. The remarkable litany of errors and miscommunications by council staff - including cabinet members and the mayor not being told that the supplier had withdrawn from the commercial market - could see the council's own energy bill balloon by £5m, while the overall city cost could stretch to £16m - with schools and the fire service also impacted.
The disaster has had far reaching consequences already and a full independent audit is currently being carried out by accountants firm Mazars, with Mayor Joanne Anderson demanding it provides 'full accountability' for what went wrong. There have already been a number of casualties. Deputy mayor Jane Corbett stripped of her finance portfolio, with former cabinet member Paul Brant brought in as an assistant mayor for finance. This was followed by a tumultuous emergency committee meeting that saw furious councillors calling for the resignation of council chief executive Tony Reeves.
Mr Reeves has not left his post, but his second in command has. Mel Creighton resigned as Liverpool Council's director of finance and deputy chief executive at the end of May. She is currently signed off work and is not expected to return during her three month notice period.
Mr Reeves, himself under increasing pressure, has sought to try and steady the ship with some temporary appointments. Deputy finance officer Chris Buss will act up into Ms Creighton's role, while Ian O'Donnell will come in on an interim basis to support him. This is a council now frantically trying to bail out the water to stop itself from sinking further.
But that water continues to flow in. Just this week there were further revelations that will have caused great alarm to those who hold the council's future in their hands. A cabinet report revealed further problems with contracts that could see the council lose out again financially. A total of 12 contracts are in need of immediate renewal that have either run out or are in danger of doing so.
Like with the energy contract, the latest revelations will be looked at closely by the commissioners and the government department set to rule on what happens next. Council sources suggest there is now a strong expectation another commissioner could be sent to Liverpool, perhaps to focus on finances or processes - both of which have been found seriously wanting in recent months.
The ECHO understands an emergency Labour group meeting - held by Mayor Anderson this week - heard further calls from some councillors for Mr Reeves to step down. Those calls have been increasing in volume and regularity in recent weeks.
A year on from the arrival of the first group of commissioners in Liverpool, the prospect of more Whitehall staff being deployed to oversee and run more of this proud, independently-minded city's council is a deeply unpalatable one. Whether that happens or not will be confirmed soon, with both the Mazars report into the energy bill fiasco and the commissioners review due to be published in the next few weeks.
No one in Liverpool wants the government taking decisions about what happens and what is spent locally. But that very may well be what comes next as the council heads into a dark summer storm.
