A number of city councillors may have to leave the Liverpool Labour Party over this week's budget vote, the ECHO understands.
There is unhappiness within sections of the ruling Labour group over the budget proposals - which include bringing in a £40 annual charge for green waste collections.
The Labour leadership is also proposing a maximum Council Tax increase of 2.99% as well as moves to save nearly £2 million from the adult social care budget.
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The full council will meet for its annual budget on Wednesday evening, where councillors will be asked to vote in favour of Mayor Joanne Anderson and her cabinet's agreed plans.
But one Labour Councillor has already indicated that he is likely to vote against the proposed budget - and he may well not be the only one.
Cllr Alan Gibbons, who represents the Warbreck ward in Walton, said he has major concerns over the plans and 'will not vote for cuts.'
He told the ECHO he is particularly concerned about the proposed savings in Adult Social Care and has also raised concerns about plans for non-council libraries, many of which are in north Liverpool.
The budget papers suggest a £280,000 saving can be found by non-statutory library services forming part of the External Grants Review.
Cllr Gibbons said he asked about this move and its impact on libraries at a Finance Committee meeting this week, but was not reassured.
He added: "I was told that the management of the libraries will have to bid from a larger funding 'pot' subject to competitive tendering.
"Non-council libraries were sold to us in 2014 as a way of maintaining provision. They should receive guaranteed funding, not being subject to the vagaries of bids for grants."
Cllr Gibbons, who was elected to the council last year - having been inspired to join the party by former leader Jeremy Corbyn - has said he intends to vote against the budget plan in its current form.
It is possible that such a move could lead to Cllr Gibbons losing the Labour whip and having to sit as an independent councillor.
He told the ECHO: "I have always said I would not vote for cuts, so I think it would make me a hypocrite if I did.
"I may end up sitting as an independent socialist councillor. Its not something I want to do but I have opposed cuts for forty years and that isn't going to change."
If Cllr Gibbons does leave the party, he may be joined by a handful of other councillors who are also opposed to what they see as voting through Conservative government funding cuts.
There are plenty of other councillors who are unhappy with the budget plans - but not quite to the extent of breaking the whip and voting against the budget plan.
One of those councillors is Greenbank representative Laura Robertson-Collins who made her objections to the planned green bin charges heard at this week's Finance Committee.
She told the ECHO: "I have consistently raised my objections to the green bin charge as I think it will discourage recycling and send out the wrong message after we have declared a climate emergency."
But she added: "I remain fully committed to support a legal budget and do not intend to break the whip."
Sources have told the ECHO that the Labour group on the council remains seriously divided between a range of different factions following a turbulent time that saw previous group leader and city mayor Joe Anderson step down after he was arrested as part of a corruption investigation.
Liverpool Council is soon to begin a process of consultation that could see the mayoral position removed and a return to the leader and cabinet model that governed the city before it.
This could mean those Labour group divisions coming to the fore ahead of the next round of elections in 2023 - as it will be the group of councillors who would choose the next city leader under that model.
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