In many ways it has been business as usual but there have been some noticeable changes as the new era at Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC) has been getting underway.

Last Saturday marked 100 days since the eventful local elections in which the Conservatives lost their majority after a 15 year unbroken spell in total control.

After those elections Conservative leader Cllr Karen Grinsell told the Local Democracy Reporting Service she intended to run the council as a minority administration.

And that is what has transpired with the Conservatives moving forward with the major Mell Square transformation; the group's councillors pushing for action on on anti-social behaviour in Solihull town centre and the leader announcing government intervention in the authority's children's services had officially ended.

But after the elections leaders of opposition parties warned there had to be a change of thinking as the Conservatives would not get their own way.

This quickly became apparent in the election of chairman and vice chairman of scrutiny groups on the authority.

Typically Conservative councillors had been elected to both.

But, for example, we have seen the the stronger communities scrutiny board elect a Reform UK councillor as chairman; the health and adult social care scrutiny board elected a Green Party councillor as chairperson and a Liberal Democrat councillor become chairman of the governance committee.

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That same Liberal Democrat, cllr James Bradley, also became vice chairman of the authority's vital planning committee.

Meanwhile councillors in the Reform UK group, which became the second largest group on the authority after the elections, have been setting out their stall.

Its councillors have already asked tough questions over the new fortnightly bin collections in the council chamber, were involved in a successful campaign to save Solihull police station and last week raised whether the hanging of flags on lampposts in the borough would be allowed to continue.

But it hasn't all been smooth sailing for Reform UK as last month cllr David Hoey defected from the party to join the ruling Conservative group.

That early shock defection means the Conservatives are now short by just one of having a majority, ahead of Solihull Council's next elections scheduled for May 2027.