We've got used to disagreement about the number of councils that should exist in the future, but it's quite something to reach such a disagreement about the technical arrangements needed to allow councils to merge voluntarily.
That's what has happened with the final vote by assembly members on local government re-organisation, which has now been postponed.
It's a reminder of how difficult it can be for the government to function without an overall majority and facing opposition parties who are not going to make life easy for it.
There are plenty of opposition assembly members who believe the vote is inconsequential anyway because no final decision has been made, but I think there is a symbolic importance to the legislation because at the very least it gives a sense of momentum to the process.
Final agreement on the future configuration of local authorities in Wales will be dependent on the numbers after the assembly election.
Cracking on
In the meantime Labour ministers are cracking on with the legislation so that in theory a newly-elected government can hit the ground running once a decision is made.
I've had a number of days reporting from the Senedd where agreement on council change seems a long way off and this has been no different.
The Welsh Local Government Association has weighed in to the postponement saying the process was in doubt anyway.
Council leaders have long maintained that re-organisation is a huge side-show to the main event, which are the cuts to services.
While on the subject of cuts, there was an interesting figure from the auditor general for Wales Huw Vaughan Thomas who said in a letter to the public accounts committee that the Welsh government's funding to local government had reduced by 10% between 2010/11 and 2014/15.
Councils generate revenue from council tax but most of their money comes from Cardiff Bay.
Fraud
On a separate subject, I don't suppose there's a conventional time to hear about a doubling of suspected fraud cases being dealt with by the Welsh government, but coming at the end of an hour and half of questioning by members of the public accounts committee to the Welsh government's most senior civil servant Sir Derek Jones did seem unusual.
We'll have to wait for more details to emerge, in the meantime Sir Derek was at pains to point out that the situation was under control and it covered 0.3% of the number of groups that the government deals with.
It's one of those stories that inevitably lead to more questions being asked but the intriguing element is that half of the potential cases appear to be connected.
