THE new deputy mayor of the West of England will get a hefty pay rise – despite doing little work for it.
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 Metro Mayor Helen Godwin is unavailable.
The West of England Combined Authority has not had a deputy mayor since 2021, when former mayor Dan Norris chose not to have one.
Ms Godwin decided to bring back the role earlier this year, and an independent panel has decided the role should be paid £19,300 a year.
Councillors on WECA’s overview and scrutiny committee questioned whether this was good value for money during a meeting in October.
Labour Bristol city 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 city 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.”
The first deputy is Liberal Democrat Kevin Guy, the leader of Bath & North East Somerset Council. He already gets £55,827 a year for being a councillor and council leader – the new payment will take this figure up to £75,127.
His role will be to deputise for the mayor in her absence, including chairing combined authority committee meetings and meeting with international visitors.
The role will swap around leaders from WECA’s constituent councils every year, and should involve a “commitment of one day a week”.
By Alex Seabrook, Local Democracy Reporting Service