Your say / Politics
‘We have got the wheels turning at WECA over the last year’
As mayor of my home region, I’m proud of the difference that we’ve made over the last year. Our region’s voice is being heard at last, as we work to make the most of devolution.
We have already secured some £1bn of government funding during the last 12 months – including our first £45m of funding from the Brownfield Housing Fund to get more homes built, including more affordable homes, and £25m from the Creative Places Growth Fund to support the creative businesses that help make our region so special.
Since May 2025, we have shown what working in partnership can achieve. Together, we have secured the green light for the long-overdue Portishead Line, and I was proud last week to sign the £200m contract that will see trains reconnect Portishead and Pill to Bristol.
Building more links with North Somerset remains a top priority, with a recent consultation showing that people across the West back them joining the combined authority so that we can secure more funding and make even more of a difference.
From more than a million free bus journeys through Kids Go Free over the summer, Christmas and Easter school holidays, to securing £23m for local families through the national campaign to scrap the two-child benefit cap, we have started to deliver real change that people can see and feel.
The same is true for the better balance that we are striking with the Dott trial through the Scoot Safe campaign.
More than 26,000 fines have been issued for poor parking, with that number falling over recent months as more than 99 per cent of journeys now end properly parked – tidying up pavements around the West.
We have got the wheels turning at WECA over the last year, and now is the time to accelerate to deliver more for people across our region.
The Devolution Act becoming law is a huge step forward, just like plans to empower us to set an overnight visitor levy and see more of existing national taxes raised here, stay here.
Our ambitions match the West of England’s potential as we look to do more, faster. People will see new train stations at Bristol Brabazon and Charfield open over the coming year, and more of our first 250 new green buses roll out too – all as we decide how best to take more control of our bus network and develop mass transit plans for key routes.
In the coming weeks, we will be banging the drum for the country’s fastest-growing regional economy at a major investment conference in Leeds.
Bristol Temple Quarter and the Brabazon & West Innovation Arc new town are both among the UK’s biggest regeneration opportunities, which we will continue shouting about to help get more homes built, with the right transport links.
We will also – building on our Child Poverty Action Plan and the Youth Guarantee’s pilot year – be taking a big step forward with a new Skills Strategy to ensure that every child and young person has the opportunities that they deserve.
With the Western Forest’s first trees planted, and exciting news to come for nature in our region, there is a lot to look forward to for people across the West of England.
This is an opinion piece by West of England mayor Helen Godwin marking her first year in office
Main photo: Jon Craig
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