Metro mayor Dan Norris accused a council leader of living in a parallel universe and having “delusions of grandeur” as tensions again spilled over in public, sparking calls for a truce to stop the region “suffering”.
Tory Cllr Toby Savage, who leads South Gloucestershire Council, took the unprecedented step of attending the West of England Combined Authority (Weca) overview & scrutiny committee on Monday, January 24, because he had been “refused” prior access to reports he will be voting on this week.
Cllr Savage said it was his first chance to ask questions and get details about the decisions he will make with Mr Norris, Bristol mayor Marvin Rees and Bath & North East Somerset Council leader Cllr Kevin Guy at Weca committee on Friday (January 28), including budgets with hundreds of millions of pounds.
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He told members that the West of England mayor had again refused to hold the informal draft-agenda pre-meeting that was common practice under predecessor Conservative Tim Bowles, where the leaders and mayors ironed out differences and agreed final recommendations, so he’d only seen the papers for the first time when they were made public last Friday.
But an unrepentant Mr Norris said he had a strong mandate from last May’s election to be a “political mayor” which he insisted was getting results, including half-a-billion-pound public transport settlement from the Government, and told the councillor: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
He said the previous ways of working were an “embarrassment” that failed to secure proper investment into the region and that there must be transparency and openness, not “backroom deals” away from the public eye.
Cllr Savage told the scrutiny committee at Kingswood civic centre: “I’m here because this is my first opportunity to comment and ask questions on the reports ahead of making a decision on Friday.
“There wasn’t any engagement with leaders on the budget and its content. It is disappointing that has been refused.
“It used to be the practice that we would have a draft agenda meeting which gives us the opportunity to ask questions, seek additional information and ultimately refine the reports and ensure good and sound decisions are made at the formal committee.
“This has not happened in the run-up to this meeting or a number of committee meetings in recent months where myself as a committee member would find out about these reports and decisions at the same time as they enter the public domain.”
He said the result was lengthy adjournments and confusion at the committees because the leaders had not discussed or agreed the reports beforehand.
Cllr Savage said the word “combined” in “combined authority” had gone by the wayside.
“It’s leading to great tension in our public meetings and ultimately questioning decisions which are being made,” he said.
He added that an “alarming” number of Weca reports and proposals were a “surprise” to council leaders and officers, right up to chief executive level, when they came out.
But Mr Norris said he did not recognise Cllr Savage’s version of events.
“You’re living in a parallel universe, Toby,” he said.
“This business about a few disagreements we’ve had in some council meetings – if you think ordinary citizens, with all the concerns they have about the economy, Covid and everything else, are going to be totally devastated if you and I don’t get on well for five minutes in a meeting, you must be joking.
“You must have delusions of grandeur, because what they want us to do is deliver on policy, and delivery is about politics.
“Our problem under the previous metro mayor wasn't that there weren’t enough procedures, the problem was that there wasn’t enough politics.
'Embarrassment'
“There was an invisible metro mayor, not making decisions, not making his case, not persuading the public.
“It was an embarrassment. That’s what was damaging to our reputation.
“I’m a very different person, I’m a political mayor, and that was what the role was always intended to be.
“So when Cllr Savage harks back to the ‘good old days’ of the past, I would argue that was dysfunctional then.”
He said they were all accountable to the public, not procedures, and that he spoke for the people because of his convincing victory at the polls.
“They want to see significant change, political change, they want something new and different and better, so that’s what is happening,” he said.
The metro mayor insisted he did meet regularly with Cllr Savage, adding: “Of course we will have to have other conversations, other meetings, but that has to come on the basis that the public are among us and listening.”
Mr Norris said the only reason a £50million green recovery fund was finally agreed at the third attempt in December – following a boycott of Weca committee by the council leaders in protest over the regional mayor wrongly using a veto to block their proposals – was because political tensions had been “ramped up”.
“We need political decisions to be made. If you can’t stand the heat, Toby, get out of the kitchen. Move out. But all the procedures are happening properly,” he said.
'Region will suffer'
Weca chief executive Patricia Greer refuted Cllr Savage’s claim that reports were often a “surprise” when published, insisting there was a long, clear process, from initial drafts up through various officer group levels and boards, so the different iterations of each paper was known across the combined and unitary authorities as it was improved.
Scrutiny committee chairman B&NES Lib Dem Cllr Winston Duguid said: “This cannot go on because we will suffer as a region if it does.
“We can’t allow that to happen. We have to get a resolution on how we work together.
“The relationship between the metro mayor and the leader of South Gloucestershire needs to go through a shift change.”
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