Nottingham City Council is set to pay a consultancy firm £95,000 — on top of the £116,576.73 it has already handed over — in order to improve its performance. The firm was called in after the council’s own consultants suggested improvements needed to be made, but the expense and the time taken have irritated some councillors, one of whom said: "Despite the expenditure on Invigor8 [the consultancy firm] we have yet to see any findings from their work or any reports or assessment of the performance of the city council."

Aberdeenshire Council angered anti-Trump protesters yesterday, moving to defer an immediate decision on whether residents should be forced from their homes to make way for the billionaire’s new golf complex. The move may have been intended to delay the process long enough for Trump to win over local residents, and was greeting with shouts of abuse from spectators of the proceedings.

Black cab drivers in Richmond are fighting the council over a proposal to redevelop the area immediately outside the train station, thereby moving the taxi rank. The cabbies say it will hamper those with disabilities, and are threatening to sue the council for £1m in lost earnings. The council disagrees, saying that the rank will not be moved far, and that a consultation with locals showed support for a new and layout.

Bolton Council expects residents will not be able to detect its latest cost-cutting scheme — the plan is to switch street lamps on four minutes later and turn them off four minutes earlier every day, a scheme which is said will save £60,000 over ten years. The city’s annual energy bill has risen from £870,000 to £1.5m in the last two years, with street lighting making up a fifth of the expenditure.