PART 2: WECA’s Dysfunction Crisis: The £475,713 Scandal and What Really Happened.
How the West of England Combined Authority spent half a million pounds on exit packages, survived a governance meltdown, and still managed to deliver award-winning infrastructure
Note: This is Part 2 of our West of England Combined Authority investigation. Read Part 1 here for the full story on rail awards and £750 million transport funding.
The Awards Were Real. So Was The Chaos.
In Part 1, we covered the good news: Ashley Down station won awards, Bristol Temple Meads Eastern Entrance won public approval, and WECA secured £750 million in government funding.
But here’s what the press releases don’t tell you: while delivering these projects, the West of England Combined Authority was simultaneously imploding.
We’re talking about:
Council leaders boycotting meetings
Half a million pounds in exit packages
A “toxic culture of fear”
Government intervention and “special measures”
A mayor who couldn’t be suspended after an arrest
And somehow, through all of this chaos, they still built actual working train stations.
Let’s talk about how that happened.
The Dan Norris Catastrophe.
What Happened.
The previous mayor, Dan Norris, was arrested in April 2025 on suspicion of rape, child sex offences, child abduction, and misconduct in public office. He was released on conditional bail and has not been charged.
Here’s the governance farce that followed: WECA couldn’t suspend him.
Their constitution had no provision for “what if the mayor gets nicked for serious crimes?” Nobody thought that would come up when writing the rulebook.
So Dan Norris remained technically in office until the May 2025 election, just:
Banned from WECA offices
Building access fob deactivated
IT system access removed
Not allowed to attend meetings
But still the mayor. Still drawing a salary. Still officially in charge.
Under emergency powers, Chief Executive Stephen Peacock made decisions on behalf of the combined authority whilst the mayor existed in this bizarre constitutional limbo.
But This Wasn’t Where It Started.
The Dan Norris situation was just the spectacular finale to years of dysfunction. The rot went much deeper.
The Dysfunction Timeline: How It All Fell Apart.
2021: The Boycott.
Council leaders were so pissed off with Norris over disputes about veto powers that they boycotted their own meeting.
Four council leaders—representing Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and North Somerset—just didn’t show up.
Like teenagers refusing to come to dinner. Except these are grown adults running a multi-billion-pound economy.
Because they didn’t attend, £50 million in spending decisions couldn’t be made. The entire authority ground to a halt over a governance dispute.
The four local authorities’ monitoring officers (who give legal advice) stated Norris’s claimed veto powers could arguably amount to maladministration. Eventually, after taking new legal advice, Norris agreed not to claim veto powers on decisions involving North Somerset.
But the damage was done. Relationships were toxic.
2022: The Audit Nightmare.
Grant Thornton auditors conducted their annual audit and found a mess:
Five “significant weaknesses” in value-for-money arrangements
Criticised the “poor state of professional relationships”
Made three legally-binding statutory recommendations
Made two “key recommendations”
Made four “implementation recommendations”
Grant Thornton only issues statutory recommendations in 3% of cases. WECA got three of them.
Oh, and WECA spent £892,000 over budget on staff salaries that year. Nearly a million pounds were overspent on wages whilst the organisation was supposedly “dysfunctional.”
Grant Thornton also initiated an investigation in May 2022 into strained relationships within WECA after identifying a “risk of significant weakness” in value-for-money arrangements. They also examined the issue of senior staff leaving, which they considered could be “highly problematic.”
2023: The £453,000 Resignation.
Chief Executive Patricia Greer—who’d been in post since WECA’s establishment in 2017—left with an “agreed resignation” that came with:
£219,000 exit package (equivalent to 16 months of pay)
Settlement of a grievance complaint against the mayor
A confidentiality agreement
Oh, and she’d been on paid leave since November 2022. So WECA was paying her not to work whilst simultaneously paying for an interim chief executive.
Total cost of the exit, including the interim chief executive and legal costs: £453,000.
For one person leaving.
2024: Government Steps In.
By March 2024, things had gotten so bad that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities had seen enough.
They issued a “best value” notice and placed WECA on a monitoring watchlist. The warning was clear: improve, or face a “best value” improvement panel being imposed, or even government best value inspectors taking over control of WECA.
Meanwhile, the BBC reported an “exodus of senior staff” with sources describing a “toxic culture of fear” within the organisation.
In November 2024, BBC News reported that there had been an exodus of senior staff from WECA, with several sources telling the BBC there was a “toxic culture of fear” in WECA. The mayor stated he had joined “a dysfunctional organisation, it [the problem] was happening before I arrived.”
Grant Thornton’s auditors noted that several senior employees who had left WECA since Norris was elected in 2021 cited “dissatisfaction with the quality of interaction” with him and his office.
2024-25: The £475,713 Exit Package Scandal.
And then came the bill.
In the 2024-25 financial year, WECA paid out £475,713 in exit packages to departing senior staff.
‘Half a Million’ Pounds.
Paying people to leave an organisation they couldn’t stand working for.
Conservative councillor Jonathan Hucker said the auditors’ report “understates the seriousness of the crisis that has engulfed the organisation.” He called it “an absolutely huge amount of money” and “a completely shocking waste of public money.”
Liberal Democrat councillor Stephen Williams (a former junior minister for local government) said: “The combined authority has existed for eight and a half years, so it is pretty extraordinary at this stage that we have had a red rating [significant weaknesses]… It is a pretty serious situation in which to find ourselves.”
Helen Godwin: The New Mayor (With A 7.5% Mandate)
The Election.
Helen Godwin (Labour) was elected on 1st May 2025 with:
51,197 votes (25% of votes cast)
On a 30% turnout
Which means 7.5% of eligible voters actually chose her
Let’s do the maths again for emphasis: 25% of 30% = 7.5%.
You know what else gets 7.5% approval ratings? Petrol station sushi.
But she has a “clear mandate” to spend three-quarters of a billion quid of public money and lead an organisation that was in government-imposed “special measures” just two months before she took office.
The Electoral Reform Society described the switch from supplementary vote to first-past-the-post as “lowering the bar for politicians and damaging British democracy.” In this system, the candidate with the most votes wins—no need for a majority.
The “Reset.”
To Helen Godwin’s credit, she’s been honest about the mess.
She’s explicitly called for a “reset” in how WECA operates and emphasised collaboration with council leaders. She’s appointed Councillor Kevin Guy (Leader of Bath & North East Somerset Council) as the first Deputy Mayor since 2021—a role that had been vacant throughout Norris’s tenure.
And importantly, relationships appear to have improved.
The government released WECA from “special measures” in March 2025—two months before Godwin even took office, suggesting improvements were already underway during the transition period.
Grant Thornton’s 2024/25 audit noted: “We note from our review of combined authority committee meetings that there had been no examples of further adjournments, walkouts or refusals to participate from members of the committee that had characterised our findings in previous years.”
Translation: at least they’re showing up to meetings now.
The Growth Strategy (And Why It Matters)
Despite all the chaos, in September 2025 WECA published a ten-year Growth Strategy with genuinely ambitious targets:
72,000 new jobs over 10 years
28% economic growth
£500 million Land Acquisition Fund for housing
UK’s first AI Supercluster (centred on Isambard-AI, Britain’s fastest supercomputer)
And here’s the thing: the economic numbers back it up.
The West of England economy is worth £53.7 billion, has delivered 21% growth over the last decade (above the national rate), and has the strongest recent economic growth of any combined authority region.
Job growth by sector over the last decade:
Clean energy: +140% (highest in the country)
Creative industries: +82% (highest in the country)
Digital & tech: +52% (highest in the country)
These numbers are genuinely impressive. The West of England has been punching above its weight economically, even whilst the combined authority itself was imploding.
Major Projects On The Horizon.
UK’s First AI Supercluster: Centred on Isambard-AI at the University of Bristol, this aims to establish the region as a leader in AI industrialisation.
West Innovation Arc & New Town: The Brabazon development in north Bristol was recommended as one of 12 new town locations by the government taskforce, which would bring additional infrastructure funding for advanced engineering and technology.
Bristol Temple Quarter: One of Europe’s largest regeneration programmes, including the University of Bristol Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, expected to deliver a £1.6bn annual boost to the regional economy.
Mass Transit: Finally moving from talk to action (maybe). Trams, light rail, MetroBus, and guided buses are all “on the table.”
Mayor Godwin herself admitted: “We’ve talked too much about mass transit and delivered too little.”
At least someone’s being honest.
The Honest Bottom Line.
Here’s what you need to understand about the West of England Combined Authority:
It is simultaneously:
✅ Delivering award-winning infrastructure
✅ Securing record funding (£750m is real)
✅ Actually building new stations that work
✅ One of the best-performing combined authorities economically
✅ Released from government “special measures”
AND
❌ Chronically slow at delivery
❌ Consistently over budget
❌ Recently catastrophically dysfunctional
❌ Perpetually delayed on major projects
❌ Spent half a million pounds paying staff to leave
Both of these things are true.
This is what “functional” government looks like after decades of underinvestment. It’s messy, compromised, full of contradictions, and costs way more than anyone wanted to pay.
Your Choice.
Would you rather have:
A) Slow, expensive progress with award-winning infrastructure and £750 million in real investment
B) Fast, cheap promises with nothing to show for it
Those are your options. Those have always been your options.
The stations that exist are genuinely good. The funding is genuinely secured. The plans are genuinely detailed. It’s just going to take longer and cost more than they’re telling you.
And there will probably be more governance drama along the way.
Frequently Asked Questions.
What happened to Dan Norris? Arrested in April 2025 on suspicion of serious offences, released on bail, not charged. He was immediately suspended from the Labour Party but remained technically in office as mayor until Helen Godwin was elected in May 2025. He is still the MP for North East Somerset & Hanham (sitting as an independent after suspension) and remains on police bail.
Why couldn’t WECA suspend him? Their constitution had no provision for suspending a mayor under police investigation. He remained in office but was banned from the building, had his IT access revoked, and couldn’t attend meetings. Chief Executive Stephen Peacock made decisions under emergency powers.
How much did WECA spend on exit packages? £475,713 in the 2024-25 financial year alone. This included “substantial” packages to three directors, plus settlements for previous senior staff departures. Critics called it “a completely shocking waste of public money.”
Is Helen Godwin doing better? Early signs suggest yes. Relationships with council leaders have improved; there have been no meeting boycotts or walkouts, and the government released WECA from “special measures” in March 2025. She’s emphasised “reset” and collaboration. But she was elected with only 7.5% of eligible voters actually choosing her.
Will the £750 million actually get spent properly? That’s the question, isn’t it? The infrastructure delivered so far (Portway Park & Ride, Ashley Down) is genuinely good and has won awards. But governance has been chaotic, projects run over budget, and timelines constantly slip. New leadership seems more stable, but the organisation’s track record is... mixed.
Is North Somerset joining WECA? North Somerset Council submitted an expression of interest in formally joining in September 2024. Leader Mike Bell has been attending WECA meetings as a first step. But they’re not full members yet—they’re essentially dating, not married.
What Happens Next?
The real test for WECA isn’t whether they can secure funding (they’ve done that) or even build stations (they’ve done that too, albeit slowly).
The real test is whether the new leadership can:
Deliver on time (or at least closer to schedule than 13 years for Portishead)
Stay within budget (or at least not need “unprecedented” extra funding every time)
Maintain functional relationships (no more boycotted meetings, please)
Actually build the mass transit system they’ve been talking about for over a decade
Avoid another governance catastrophe (constitutional crisis speedrun: any%)
Based on the last eight years, you’d be forgiven for being sceptical.
But based on the previous eight months, there’s reason for cautious optimism.
The government's release of them from “special measures” in March 2025 suggests someone thinks they’ve turned a corner. The continued flow of funding from Westminster suggests confidence in delivery. The awards for completed projects suggest they can build quality infrastructure when they actually finish something.
Time will tell.
And when it inevitably takes longer than expected, at least we’ll all be here to document it.
Stay Updated.
Official Sources:
Local News Coverage:
Related Reading:
Back to Part 1 -
About the Author: Bristol-based blogger, John Langley - aka ‘The Almighty Gob.’
Keywords: WECA dysfunction | Dan Norris arrest | Helen Godwin mayor | West of England governance crisis | Bristol transport scandal | WECA exit packages | Combined Authority special measures | Bristol infrastructure | West of England mayor election.