It’s not easy, changing council leader.

Far from being a case of sitting back and waiting to find out who Labour group chooses on the Ides of March, town hall officers are already hard at work – more than three weeks before the planned handover.

This week, they’re phoning councils that have recently had a leadership change in similar circumstances, and asking them if they can talk about how they managed the transition. “What was your blueprint,” corporate governance teams around Britain are being asked.

It’s hardly the Obama transition team, but every little helps.