News / Politics
Man you might not have heard of to retire from job you might not know exists
Tim Bowles has announced that he will be retiring from politics.
Tim who? Tim Bowles. The West of England’s first metro mayor, who it’s fair to say does not have quite the same profile as his contemporary in Manchester, Andy Burnham, or Bristol mayor Marvin Rees in the level of local government one rung below metro mayor.
Bowles was elected mayor of the West of England Combined Authority (WECA, comprising Bristol, South Glos and Bath & North East Somerset) in 2017, but will not be standing for a second term next year.
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Bristol24/7 has asked the Conservatives if the reason why Bowles is not standing again is that he was not selected by the party to contest a second term.
Despite being in charge of a budget of hundreds of millions of pounds, with much government money funnelled through WECA, the former Winterbourne councillor remains little known outside political circles.
Bowles’ anonymity is surprising as his official Conservative Party biography says that he enjoyed a successful career in sales and marketing management.
In a statement released on Monday afternoon, Bowles said that “it has been an honour and a privilege to serve the West of England as a councillor and as the region’s first Metro Mayor”.
The mayor listed achievements in his term so far including creating the MetroWest rail network, extending metrobus, the region becoming a 5G “test-bed”, his newly launched Business Innovation Fund, and his Future Bright scheme which has helped more than 700 families improve their job and career prospects.
“But most of all I am pleased of the impact on the families right across the West of England that have benefited from the 4,000 new jobs and 13,000 new qualifications that have come as a direct result of extra funding that we have in the region, simply because we have a Combined Authority.”
Bowles said that he is proud of “this track record of success, but now I would like to take the opportunity to pursue some other interests and do those things which have had to take a back seat for so many years”.
If there were bookies’ favourites for this kind of thing, the smart money as to who could be the new Conservative candidate would be on Tim Warren, the former leader of Bath & North East Somerset Council; or perhaps Bristol’s Tory leader at City Hall, Mark Weston, who in 2019 failed to win the Bristol North West constituency from Labour.
Former Bristol West MP Stephen Williams is the Lib Dem candidate for next year’s metro mayor elections, while another former MP and government minister, Dan Norris, was last week confirmed as Labour’s candidate in a surprise victory over Bristol City Council cabinet member, Helen Godwin.
https://twitter.com/votedannorris/status/1315964381142953984
Main photo: Tim Bowles / Facebook
Read more: Former Labour MP to stand for West of England mayor
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