Teesside councillors 'undermined' by mayor Ben Houchen

Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen is accused of having "undermined" council leaders on the TVCA cabinet

A former local authority leader has criticised the treatment of councillors at the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) as "second class".

Sue Jeffrey led Redcar and Cleveland Council between 2015 and 2019, a period during which the TVCA was established.

She lost out to Ben Houchen in 2017 when he was elected Tees Valley mayor with powers heading the authority.

Responding to the criticism, Mr Houchen's office called Mrs Jeffrey a "bitter" and "failed" council leader.

Mrs Jeffrey, formerly of Labour, quit politics last May after choosing not to stand again in her South Bank ward.

Now, following an independent report which criticised a lack of transparency in the governance of the Teesworks industrial regeneration project, she has said councillors on the TVCA were not treated as "equal partners" by Mr Houchen.

The TVCA's cabinet is made up of council leaders from five constituent local authorities and is chaired by the Conservative mayor.

Mrs Jeffrey said overview and scrutiny committee members had been denied access to confidential reports in their role as cabinet members.

'Doesn't consult'

She also claimed Labour councillors who asked for a room to gather in before a scrutiny meeting were told facilities at the authority were not available to them as they were "not part of the organisation".

Mrs Jeffrey said: "Any leader or councillor reading the review report should be concerned about the dismissive way they have been treated and question how they have ended up such a poor second in the TVCA decision-making process, and in the case of scrutiny and audit not relevant at all."

She said council leaders and Mr Houchen were "collectively custodians of all that TVCA do", but the former were not "equal partners" in the decision-making process.

Mrs Jeffrey, who was also previously on the board of the South Tees Development Corporation, suggested a "reboot" was required for the councils to "urgently reinstate their position and influence".

Sue Jeffrey has called for council members on the cabinet to be "equal partners"

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the TVCA was the result of years of successful partnerships between councils but that their roles had been "undermined ... by the way business has been done over the last four years particularly".

Ms Jeffrey said: "If the mayor wants to do things he will just go ahead and do them and doesn't consult with or do it in the collegiate manner that was envisaged in the combined authority constitution."

'Very bitter'

A spokesman for Mr Houchen's office said the mayor would "not be engaging in a back and forth with a failed council leader who is clearly still very bitter".

The Teesworks review panel, ordered by Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove, found no evidence of corruption or illegality.

However, it made 28 recommendations having concluded there was a culture of excessive confidentiality.

Mr Houchen is standing for re-election as Tees Valley mayor with the vote to be held on 2 May.

Chris McEwan, deputy leader of Darlington Borough Council, is Labour's candidate, while businessman Simon Thorley is on the ballot for the Liberal Democrats and Sally Bunce will represent the Green Party.