Bristol mayors clash over claim city left out of key decisions

Marvin Rees (l) wrote the letter to "metro mayor" Tim Bowles

Bristol's elected mayor has written a scathing letter to his "metro mayor" counterpart claiming the city is being left out of key decisions and meetings.

In the leaked letter sent from Marvin Rees to Tim Bowles, Mr Rees describes the West of England Combined Authority (Weca) as a "separate entity" that Bristol does not feel part of.

Weca represents three of the four councils in the greater Bristol area.

Mr Bowles said Weca and the mayor were "all focused on working together".

In the letter, seen by the BBC, Mr Rees says he fears Bristol will not receive central funding for infrastructure, housing and skills if the government is "not confident in the effectiveness of Weca and our joint working".

Mr Rees said while the city council and Weca had agreed a "shared vision and understanding of the challenges" in running a "successful partnership" he did not experience much of this happening in practice.

'Matter of urgency'

He gave the example of how economic recovery following Covid-19 was organised and said a press release had been issued "with no input or chance to comment; no opportunity to contribute to your input to M9 [the nine metro mayors] discussions with government and no meaningful cascade of what comes out of them".

Labour politician Mr Rees is now asking for a meeting with Conservative Mr Bowles "as a matter of urgency... to ensure maximum impact from our collective effort on economic recovery".

In a statement Mr Bowles said: "The mayor and the combined authority are all focused on working together to manage our region's economic recovery and doing what is best for the west of England."

Weca is a partnership between Bristol City Council, South Gloucestershire Council, and Bath and North East Somerset Council.

It does not include North Somerset Council which is also in the greater Bristol area.