Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council is a unitary authority with all the seats up for election on Thursday. At present it is Labour/Independent coalition with 27 Labour councillors, 16 Lib Dems, 11 Conservatives and five others. So gaining overall control must be among Labour's more modest aspirations.
Disappointingly the Conservatives only have 33 candidates standing. By contrast the Lib Dems, who gained the redcar constituency at the General Election, seem to putting up more of fight than elsewhere.
Last year the Labour Council was still recruiting for new highly paid PR posts. Last year it paid out £480,000 to Pauline Scanlon who accused them of sexual discrimination.
Conservative Group leader Cllr Valerie Halton has proposed a 5% cut in councillor allowances.