Bickering and mistrust among the region’s political leaders has landed the West of England Combined Authority (Weca) on a government “watchlist”, it has been revealed. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) is “keeping a close eye” on how the organisation responds to a damning report by external auditors who effectively ordered them to stop fighting, play nicely and heal their “strained relationships”.
Labour metro mayor Dan Norris, the elected head of Weca, and the leaders of the three councils that make up the regional body – Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset – unanimously approved an action plan in December to fix the issues. It committed the politicians and senior officers to cooperate better, along with a “peer review challenge” where outside experts come in to root out the problems and sort them, which is being carried out by an organisation called Solace (the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives).
But it has now emerged that DLUHC has placed Weca on alert and is closely monitoring “whether any further action is necessary” after the work is completed – raising the prospect that it could send in government "best value" inspectors. It follows a series of high-profile bust-ups, name-calling, dysfunctional public meetings with hours-long intervals and even one boycotted by the three council leaders, since Mr Norris became West of England mayor in May 2021.
Read more: Bristol region's political leaders promise to get along better following damning report
Cross-party councillors on Weca audit committee were told on Thursday, March 2, that work on the action plan was underway, including talks in February between the metro mayor, fellow Labour mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees, South Gloucestershire Council leader Conservative Cllr Toby Savage and B&NES Council leader Lib Dem Cllr Kevin Guy on regional priorities and funding. Bristol Cllr David Wilcox (Green, Lockleaze) asked: “What would be the ultimate sanction from DLUHC?
“If they felt Weca was so dysfunctional that it couldn’t make decisions, would they actually come in and run Weca?” Combined authority interim chief executive Richard Ennis replied: “They can send in inspectors to take over.
“You’re in the world of [effectively bankrupt] Thurrock council. Takeover inspectors are the worst category where an authority is in really big trouble.
“The next level is a best value improvement panel – Croydon council and Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority have best-value inspectors. After that there is a new category where they’ve created a watchlist of all the authorities they want to keep a close eye on because they know there are issues they need to improve – we are probably in that category.
“Then you have well-run authorities sitting underneath that. The important thing for us with our action plan is that we move into that lowest category, but we are not a Thurrock or a Croydon, we are beneath that.
“As to what sanction they have, they could move us into that best value improvement panel so you’d have an independent panel to try to improve us. What we have done is we have used Solace to do it because that gives it some independence.”
Weca committee chairman Bristol Cllr Geoff Gollop (Conservative, Westbury-on-Trym & Henleaze) said that despite the positive work taking place on the action plan he remained concerned that the leaders were not taking it seriously enough. He said the latest Weca committee in January included a 100-minute adjournment because the politicians had not cooperated beforehand to agree a key decision.
“I am still not convinced that the leaders know what impression that gives to anybody trying to follow the meeting,” Cllr Gollop said. "When I hear the number of government departments that may have been watching the broadcast when the adjournment happened, I can’t help but be concerned because that does not look the way a properly functioning organisation operates.
'Massive risk'
“They could have the discussion or the arm-wrestling or whatever they want it to be to resolve it in advance of the meeting.” Bristol Cllr Mark Bradshaw, (Labour, Bedminster) said: “At times there are political disagreements about priorities but they have to be managed in an environment where decisions are timely and clear, and we have an external audience.
“It is a massive reputational risk for Weca that if this is not resolved on a satisfactorily long-term basis, it will damage the work of Weca and by implication the constituent local authorities. That underlines the importance and priority that the mayor of Weca and the other leaders ought to assign to it.”
External auditors Grant Thornton’s report in November found five “significant weaknesses” in the organisation’s value-for-money arrangements and made three statutory recommendations, which are the most serious that can be applied to a public body and must be addressed urgently. B&NES Cllr Hal McFie (Lib Dem, Keynsham East) said one of these “jumped out” – to establish a formal process for early consultation among the authorities on key proposals – and that focusing work on this would “get ourselves out of the trouble we’re in”.
He said: “I’m depressed to hear there was another 100-minute stoppage because it’s becoming clear to ordinary residents that there is something serious going on.” A DLUHC spokesperson said: “We welcome the commissioning of Solace to undertake a peer review challenge.
“We wish to see a robust, wide-ranging review which diagnoses the issues in the authority and, where possible, provide assurance on the action plan and its delivery. This will then inform whether any further action is necessary.”
Read next:
'Damning' WECA report into council chief spat prompts plea to 'play nicely'
WECA leaders agree huge hike in staffing costs at latest shambolic meeting
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