The blood-spattered, sound-proofed star chambers

Cornwall Council's star chambers kick-off tomorrow: a week-long exercise in either (depending on your tastes) hacking and slashing services, or cutting bureaucracy and waste. Whichever you prefer, it will result in a significantly smaller local authority and 2,000 council workers looking for new jobs.


Imagine the scene: a nervous Cornwall Council cabinet member, surrounded by his or her colleagues, with chief executive Kevin Lavery in attendance. Councillor Jim Currie leads for the prosecution. He will let nothing distract him from his mission - to find the missing £108 million.

No councillor will be allowed to play to the gallery (the gallery is closed.) There will be no parade of bleeding stumps; no populist appeals to the mob. The axe will swing, silently, and the first we will hear of the work it has done is when "recommendations" are brought to next month's Cabinet meeting.

We do, however, have some clues - we know that Adult Social Care is £2.3 million overspent; Environmental Services is about £850,000 overspent; Communities about £700,000 overspent. That's to say they are spending more than the current business plan allows. But in the star chamber, no-one can hear you scream.