News / Politics
WECA deputy to receive healthy pay rise
The new deputy mayor of the West of England will get a hefty pay rise despite doing little work.
The role will rotate between the leaders of the three councils in the area who will get paid an extra £19,300 for occasionally chairing meetings when the mayor is unavailable.
For the past few years the West of England Combined Authority has not had a deputy mayor. Former mayor Dan Norris chose not to have a deputy, but the new mayor Helen Godwin decided to bring back the role earlier this year.
An independent panel has decided to pay the deputy mayor £19,300 a year.
Councillors on the overview and scrutiny committee questioned whether this was good value for money during a meeting on Monday.
Labour councillor Kelvin Blake said: “It’s a lot of money for the deputy role and therefore there’s an expectation that they act as the deputy and we get good value for money.
“The public will demand that level of scrutiny. It’s quite a large payment.”
Conservative councillor Mark Weston added: “I’m very nervous about this. I’m actually not sure what the deputy does for that role.
“This seems quite a large amount of money for a roughly honorific title. I’m not sure this is value for money in any guise at all.
“I think what will happen is you’ll have a payment that goes out, and I’m not sure any service to the taxpayer or the mayor will be improved for it. I don’t see the need for this at all.”
The first deputy will be Liberal Democrat councillor Kevin Guy, the leader of Bath & North East Somerset Council.
He already gets paid £55,827 a year for being a councillor and leading the council, and the new deputy mayor role will take this figure up to £75,127.
His role will be to deputise for the mayor in her absence; to chair combined authority committee meetings if the mayor is unavailable; and to meet with international visitors if the mayor cannot.
The role will swap around every year, and should involve a “commitment of one day a week”.
Alex Seabrook is a local democracy reporter for Bristol
Main photo: Freia Turland
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