News / Politics
‘Shocking and disgusting waste of taxpayers’ money’ by WECA
Civic chiefs “squandered a shocking and disgusting waste of taxpayers’ money” by handing out staff exit packages of nearly £1m in three years.
The West of England Combined Authority’s (WECA’s) recently published annual draft accounts show it awarded £242,000 in payoffs between April 2025 and March 2026, adding to the £457,000 the year before and £219,000 in 2023/24.
The accounts also reveal chief executive Stephen Peacock received a £235,454 salary over the last 12 months, along with £34,593 in employer pension contributions – a package of about £270,000.
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And the number of staff on £50,000 or more almost doubled – from 64 to 113.
In 2025/26 WECA gave a ‘golden handshake’ (leaving bonus) of £152,000, including any pension contributions, and another of £45,000 in compulsory redundancies.
There were two other paid departures, classed in an “Other” category, both between £20,001 and £40,000, amounting to a total of £45,000.
These are understood to relate to two employees who left before April 2025.
Councillor and WECA audit committee member Jonathan Hucker, a qualified accountant, called the exit fees “profoundly disturbing”.
“Over the past three years, WECA has squandered almost £1million of hard-earned taxpayers’ cash in this way,” he said. “To put this into context, this equates to the annual income tax paid by over 200 workers on the average wage.
“It is a shocking and disgusting waste of taxpayers money by this completely dysfunctional organisation.”
A table in the accounts shows the number of staff at the combined authority – comprising Bristol city, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset councils – who were paid at least £50,000 soared last year.
Including any exit packages but excluding pension contributions, 34 employees received between £50,000 and £54,999 – up from 24 in 2024/25 – 19 got £55,000 to £59,001 – an increase from nine – 15 were paid £60,000 to £64,999 – up from eight – and 16 were on between £65,000 and £69,999 – double that of 12 months earlier.
Five staff received between £70,000 and £74,999 – three the year before – and those on £75,000 to £79,999 rose from six to ten.
While the number of employees paid £80,000 to £84,999 remained static at three, those on £85,000 to £89,999 rocketed from zero to seven.
One person got between £115,000 and £119,999 and another was in the £165,000 to £169,999 pay band.
A WECA spokesperson said the authority would not comment on HR matters.
Main photo: WECA
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