The West of England Combined Authority spent almost half a million pounds on exit packages for senior staff and settling historic grievances in Dan Norris’ last year as mayor.
Helen Godwin speaks to the Local Democracy Reporting Service in the WECA offices | Photo © John Wimperis
“Substantial” exit packages to three directors at the organisation, together with other settlements to conclude previous cases of senior staff departures, saw the combined authority pay out £475,713 in the 2024/25 financial year.
Auditors Grant Thornton, who revealed the figure in their interim annual report, said that the departures took place during “attempts to stabilise the organisation” and were “reasonable in context”.
But the report warned that continuing to pay out to let senior staff go “is not reflective of good value for money in general terms”.
The chief finance officer, strategic director of infrastructure, and director of people and assets all departed the organisation in 2024/25.
That followed the departures of the interim chief executive and interim monitoring officer earlier in 2024 and what Grant Thornton described as a “high level of turnover” in the past.
The report said that a lack of effective performance management had limited the combined authority’s options around the exit of senior staff.
It added: “This is complicated by the legacy of poor relationships between senior officers, and between officers and the former mayor, which has left the organisation with a greater exposure to legal challenge from employees.”
The combined authority — made up of Bath & North East Somerset Council, Bristol City Council, and South Gloucestershire Council — was given a “best value notice” by the government in March 2024 and ordered to improve relationships between officers and politicians and address governance issues. Meetings of the combined authority committee had been marked by sometimes bitter exchanges between then mayor Dan Norris (Labour) and leaders of the three member councils. In 2021, one meeting was boycotted by all council leaders.
The best value notice was lifted in 2024, shortly before the local elections saw Helen Godwin (also Labour) replace Mr Norris as mayor.
The auditor’s report said: “We are satisfied that sufficient progress on improving relationships was made in 2024/25 and that this has gained significant momentum since the arrival of the new Mayor in May.”
Ms Godwin said in a statement: “In this new chapter for the West of England, we have turned the page on the problems of the past. This report highlights some of the combined authority’s work in catching up with other city-regions, and sets out further reforms to help the organisation deliver what people across our area deserve.
“Together with council leaders from across the West, we are focused on the future.”
Grant Thornton said that Ms Godwin’s appointment of Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Liberal Democrat leader Kevin Guy as her deputy mayor had been a “significant step” in the improvement of relationships at a political level.
But the report added that relationships had also already improved under Mr Norris from their lowest point.
It said: “Prior to the departure of the former mayor, it was noted that, following his election to parliament in July [2024], he had participated sufficiently to enable WECA business to be progressed.
“We note from our review of combined authority committee meetings that there had been no examples of further adjournments, walkouts or refusals to participate from members of the committee that had characterised our findings in previous years.”
West of England Combined Authority chief executive officer Stephen Peacock said: “We welcome this report from the independent auditors, as we continue our organisational improvement journey.
“Their analysis confirms that historic issues have been appropriately addressed, with significant progress in relationships between officers and leaders.
“The strengthened governance now in place demonstrates why the best value notice was lifted by government earlier this year. While there is still more work to do to get to where we want to be, the combined authority is now better placed to support the mayor and committee’s ambitions for the region.”
One area for further work identified in the report was to “implement additional controls” to ensure the correct procurement process was followed when bringing in contractors.
In July, Mr Peacock told a meeting of the combined authority’s scrutiny committee that the organisation had breached its own internal procurement rules — although not the law — in how it had brought in two former members of Bristol City Council staff to work at the combined authority as contractors.
Mr Norris was arrested in April, towards the end of his term as mayor, on suspicion of sexual offences against a girl, rape, child abduction, and misconduct in a public office.
He remains on police bail while an investigation is ongoing, and he has not been charged.
He was already not contesting the 2025 mayoral election as he had been elected as the MP for North East Somerset and Hanham.
He was suspended by the Labour Party upon his arrest, although Labour whip Chris Elmore has cast Mr Norris’ proxy vote while he is understood to have been banned from the parliamentary estate.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
