Region’s mayors call truce as Bowles prepares to step down

The region’s two warring mayors appeared to call a truce at Tim Bowles’ final public meeting as head of the West of England Combined Authority (WECA).

Bristol’s Labour mayor Marvin Rees and his Conservative metro counterpart have had a frosty relationship over the last year.

But Rees told WECA committee on Friday, January 29, that Bowles had shown “honourable” leadership and that WECA was no place for “nonsense party wrangling”.

It came as Bowles, who has served since 2017 as the first West of England mayor but is not standing for reelection, confirmed he would continue in office if May’s local elections were cancelled.

The spat between the pair became public in June when Rees claimed in a letter leaked to the media that the city was being left out of key decisions and meetings with government and branded the combined authority a “separate entity”.

Bowles refused to be drawn into the row and said in a statement that everyone was focused on working together on the recovery from the pandemic.

Then in November the metro mayor, along with the leaders of North Somerset, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset councils, accused Bristol’s mayor of sabotaging efforts to let North Somerset join WECA.

In a joint statement they accused Rees of “putting party politics before doing the right thing for the region” by blocking the expansion.

In response, the Bristol mayor said he was disappointed “an ongoing internal debate” had been made public and that he did support North Somerset joining but only when the Government put in place “a clear financial offer that benefits Bristol and the West of England economy”.

Rees appeared to call a truce with Bowles. Photo: Bristol City Council

Paying tribute to the metro mayor at WECA committee on Friday, January 29, Rees told Bowles: “We’ve been on this four-year journey now.

“Inevitably when you go on a journey like that you have bumps in the road, and we have different philosophies and different parties, and we bumped into those.

“But the way you’ve approached the leadership of the combined authority is honourable and I hope those who are standing will take a leaf out of your book and recognise the combined authority is not a place to engage in nonsense party wrangling, cross border, whatever, that people will see the way you’ve handled relationships with a real dignity.

“I hope the incoming candidates talk to you about what’s important. The culture is important in this combined authority.

“It has gone through challenges and has become increasingly challenged recently but you have really conducted yourself well and helped us, so thank you for the way you’ve led that.”

He said the pair had worked closely on major regeneration projects for Bristol such as Temple Quarter.

In his farewell speech at the meeting, Bowles said the region had suffered from underinvestment from government before WECA was created.

He said: “I am very proud of the work we’ve done as a region in starting to overcome not just this reputation but the way in which we have worked so carefully together.

“We have created structures and systems and plans that the Government is underwriting and recognising.

“This is unlocking huge potential and huge investment for people across the region and it’s having an impact on people’s lives.

Tim Bowles is to step down from the role of metro mayor. Photo: WECA

Bowles added: “In just four years from starting from scratch we have made huge steps forward to go beyond just individual projects to put together plans that are delivering for us already but are going to be planning for the future, whether that’s our transport plan that now includes our 10-year rail plan, whether it’s the cycling and walking infrastructure and all the innovation we’re putting into transport to speed up how we move around the region and reduce carbon emissions, whether it’s our local industrial strategy that’s backing innovation.

“It is a testament to everybody here today about how we have been able to work together to do that.

“As a combined authority we’re unlocking at least £1bn of extra investment across our region to support these plans, but we’re able to now because we’re a combined authority that can bid in to government for things that would not be available if we were still just a number of individual councils.

“We already know from those investments we have created thousands of new jobs, increased skills provision for over 13,000 people and we’ve unlocked more businesses moving into the region that are creating good, well-paid, long-term careers.

“We have a long way still to go, and especially as we now recover from the pandemic, it’s more important we keep focused on that.”

Main photo: Bristol City Council

Read more: Rift revealed between Rees and metro mayor Bowles