Dysfunction West political leaders told to play nicely
IN an ‘utterly damning’ report watchdogs have ordered the region’s feuding political leaders to stop fighting, “play nicely” and work together or risk losing vital government money.
Auditors Grant Thornton found five “significant weaknesses” in the West of England Combined Authority’s ( Weca’s ) arrangements to secure value for money (VfM) in its use of resources.
The 2020/21 VfM audit report makes three legally-binding “statutory recommendations”, which are the most serious that can be applied to a public body and must be reported to government and addressed as an “urgent priority”.
Grant Thornton has issued such recommendations to only six of the 180 local authorities whose books it has examined this year – one in 30 – a Weca audit committee meeting was told.
Weca bosses have accepted the findings but insist they run the “most successful combined authority in the country”.
They also suggested the combined authority has achieved this because of, and not despite, the major public fallouts between metro mayor Dan Norris, who heads Weca, and the leaders of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset councils.
But members of the cross-party audit committee slammed their response to the report as “complacent”.
Two of the statutory recommendations relate to “strained relationships” among the four political leaders and even some top officials.
At the height of the row last year, Labour’s Mr Norris branded fellow Labour mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees, South Gloucestershire Council leader Conservative Cllr Toby Savage and Bath & North East Somerset Council leader Lib Dem Cllr Kevin Guy the “Hokey Cokey Three”, while they boycotted a Weca committee where decisions involving millions of pounds should have been made.
The newly-released report said: “External perceptions of dysfunction could also begin to affect the reputation of the combined authority with central government.”
In response, Weca management said political leaders had taken part in a mediation process chaired by Prof Steve West which was still ongoing and should result in a “protocol for future working”.
Weca chief executive Patricia Greer told the meeting that the auditors concluded there was no evidence that the strained relationships had had an adverse effect on how Weca worked.
“In the last financial year we have brought in nearly £1billion of additional funding to the region which would not have come in had we not had an effective combined authority,” she said. Afterwards, Cllr Savage said: “The independent auditor’s report makes for utterly damning reading with no less than three statutory recommendations – this is unheard of.”