Council leaders have agreed that Metro Mayor Dan Norris unlawfully spent £10,000 of taxpayers’ money to cover a bus with huge photos of him and his dog for political gain.
Metro Mayor Dan Norris launching the initiative | Photo © WECA
They now want to see details of all spending from his mayoral budget from the last two years.
A committee comprising the leaders of South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset councils accepted the findings of the West of England Combined Authority’s (WECA’s) top legal and finance officers that the spending was “clearly” unlawful and that the bus “wrap” broke local government rules because it amounted to political self-promotion.
But because Mr Norris’s Bristol Labour counterpart Marvin Rees refused to attend after branding the emergency meeting “improper” and questioning whether Thursday 14th December’s WECA committee was itself lawful, they made no formal finding over the issue of lawfulness and did not place blame or order any sanction.
The Metro Mayor has denied any wrongdoing and has said he was not given the opportunity to be interviewed by the official carrying out the investigation.
A First double-decker was plastered with three images up to 3m tall of Mr Norris and two of his dog Angel to promote the Birthday Bus free travel scheme and tackle a bus driver shortage last spring.
It was pulled by WECA chief executive Richard Ennis when he found out.
The proposed bus wrap featuring West of England metro mayor Dan Norris | Image © WECA
A report to the committee said Mr Norris issued a “direct instruction” to staff in the combined authority’s mayoral office to spend the government money on the publicity stunt.
With Mr Rees’s absence and Mr Norris required not to be in the room during the debate, last Thursday’s committee comprised only South Gloucestershire Council leader Cllr Claire Young and B&NES Council leader Cllr Kevin Guy, both Lib Dems.
Announcing their decision, Cllr Guy said: “The committee is of the view that this expenditure was clearly unlawful for the reasons set out in the report.
“However, we will not pass a formal resolution to that effect because we feel very strongly that a representative from Bristol City Council should have attended this meeting to contribute to the debate and the vote.
“Therefore we resolve to conclude the meeting having made no formal finding on unlawfulness but making the following directions to the head of paid services to:
“Invite the authority’s external auditors to carefully consider the way in which this matter has proceeded with particular reference to the existing statutory recommendations;
“Implement a code of practice protocol to be followed in all mayoral marketing and communications activity moving forward;
“Carry on with the implementation of the corrective measures set out in the report and report progress back to the audit committee;
“To take a line-by-line report to audit committee on spend against the mayoral budget in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years in order to assist and inform the code of practice protocol and inform organisational learning in the future.”
The “existing statutory recommendations” refer to external auditors Grant Thornton’s damning 2022 report which found five significant weaknesses in WECA’s value-for-money arrangements and ordered the region’s political leaders to stop squabbling and work better together.
The combined authority’s mayoral budget is separate from Weca’s main budgets which run into hundreds of millions of pounds.
It totals just £675,000 this year to cover the costs for the mayor, related office expenses and support, as well as funds to run the four-yearly elections.
Speaking at Thursday’s committee, Cllr Guy said: “This has taken up a considerable amount of time over what is in the general public’s view a very small sum of money.
“But this is about the way Weca works and functions and whether it is functioning within the law.
“I am personally very frustrated that Bristol are not here.”
The meeting finally went ahead at the third attempt after Cllrs Guy and Young adjourned the first one two weeks ago because they felt it was “improper” for it to go ahead without anyone from the city council, while the second was postponed three hours before it was due to start last Tuesday.
Cllr Young told the committee that the public had raised concerns about how much time and money the issue had taken up and asked Mr Ennis to come back with a report showing the costs of the investigation and the meetings.
“Nevertheless the principle of the matter is important, regardless of the sum involved on this occasion,” she said.
“Today’s report is not about individuals, there are other forums for that – either management actions or a formal complaint.
“Today is about making sure Weca functions appropriately in future.”
In a letter from Mr Rees to the metro mayor on Wednesday, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Bristol’s mayor said: “I remain unconvinced that this meeting is lawful and am of the view it is improper.”
Adam Postans, Local Democracy Reporter
