The West of England Combined Authority Committee (WECA) has called an emergency meeting today to determine whether Metro Mayor Dan Norris spent taxpayers\u2019 money \u2018unlawfully\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Norris, who was elected in 2021, covered a First bus in a wrap to advertise WECA\u2019s \u2018birthday buses\u2019 scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since launching in August, the scheme has offered anyone living in the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority or North Somerset Council region, a free month of bus travel throughout their birthday month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now Norris has come under fire for decorating a bus intended for a launch event with images of him and his dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA bus ‘wrap’ created for the birthday bus scheme has been subject to an investigation. Credit: WECA <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nConcerns were raised in April by WECA interim chief executive Richard Ennis, and the bus was ultimately removed, but a report issued before today\u2019s meeting states<\/a> \u201c\u00a310,000 of public funds were nevertheless unlawfully spent wrapping the bus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs well as the expenditure, the report also questions the images used.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThree sides of the bus featured large photos of the Metro Mayor and his dog. It\u2019s claimed, “Imagery associated with the Metro Mayor should be merely \u2018incidental\u2019 to the main purpose of the spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n“Instead, the wrap appears to explicitly seek to affect public support of the Metro Mayor.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\nSteve Smith, Conservative Councillor for Westbury-on-Trym and Henleaze, thinks Norris has gone too far, saying: \u201cIf you look at similar material that gets put out by the Mayor of London \u2013 another combined authority mayor \u2013 it doesn\u2019t say Sadiq Khan with a big picture of Sadiq Kahn on. Which is what Dan did here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cYou have to be aware when the taxpayer\u2019s paid for it. There is a line that you don\u2019t cross, and it\u2019s my view that he was certainly skirting over that line if not completely crossing it with these [adverts].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nNorris has defended himself and explained \u201cI remain steadfast in my view that mayors are meant to be visible, and this was stated in my election manifesto on which I won\u201d and that he \u201chasn\u2019t been asked for his view\u201d since the report was published.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCommittee members will meet later today to discuss the issue, although Norris will be required to leave the room for the duration of the meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The West of England Combined Authority Committee (WECA) has called an emergency meeting today to determine whether Metro Mayor Dan Norris spent taxpayers\u2019 money \u2018unlawfully\u2019. Norris, who was elected in 2021, covered a First bus in a wrap to advertise WECA\u2019s \u2018birthday buses\u2019 scheme. Since launching in August, the scheme has offered anyone living in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":287,"featured_media":38331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38319"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38414,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38319\/revisions\/38414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Concerns were raised in April by WECA interim chief executive Richard Ennis, and the bus was ultimately removed, but a report issued before today\u2019s meeting states<\/a> \u201c\u00a310,000 of public funds were nevertheless unlawfully spent wrapping the bus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs well as the expenditure, the report also questions the images used.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThree sides of the bus featured large photos of the Metro Mayor and his dog. It\u2019s claimed, “Imagery associated with the Metro Mayor should be merely \u2018incidental\u2019 to the main purpose of the spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n“Instead, the wrap appears to explicitly seek to affect public support of the Metro Mayor.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\nSteve Smith, Conservative Councillor for Westbury-on-Trym and Henleaze, thinks Norris has gone too far, saying: \u201cIf you look at similar material that gets put out by the Mayor of London \u2013 another combined authority mayor \u2013 it doesn\u2019t say Sadiq Khan with a big picture of Sadiq Kahn on. Which is what Dan did here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cYou have to be aware when the taxpayer\u2019s paid for it. There is a line that you don\u2019t cross, and it\u2019s my view that he was certainly skirting over that line if not completely crossing it with these [adverts].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nNorris has defended himself and explained \u201cI remain steadfast in my view that mayors are meant to be visible, and this was stated in my election manifesto on which I won\u201d and that he \u201chasn\u2019t been asked for his view\u201d since the report was published.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCommittee members will meet later today to discuss the issue, although Norris will be required to leave the room for the duration of the meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The West of England Combined Authority Committee (WECA) has called an emergency meeting today to determine whether Metro Mayor Dan Norris spent taxpayers\u2019 money \u2018unlawfully\u2019. Norris, who was elected in 2021, covered a First bus in a wrap to advertise WECA\u2019s \u2018birthday buses\u2019 scheme. Since launching in August, the scheme has offered anyone living in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":287,"featured_media":38331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38319"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38414,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38319\/revisions\/38414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
As well as the expenditure, the report also questions the images used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three sides of the bus featured large photos of the Metro Mayor and his dog. It\u2019s claimed, “Imagery associated with the Metro Mayor should be merely \u2018incidental\u2019 to the main purpose of the spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Instead, the wrap appears to explicitly seek to affect public support of the Metro Mayor.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\nSteve Smith, Conservative Councillor for Westbury-on-Trym and Henleaze, thinks Norris has gone too far, saying: \u201cIf you look at similar material that gets put out by the Mayor of London \u2013 another combined authority mayor \u2013 it doesn\u2019t say Sadiq Khan with a big picture of Sadiq Kahn on. Which is what Dan did here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cYou have to be aware when the taxpayer\u2019s paid for it. There is a line that you don\u2019t cross, and it\u2019s my view that he was certainly skirting over that line if not completely crossing it with these [adverts].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nNorris has defended himself and explained \u201cI remain steadfast in my view that mayors are meant to be visible, and this was stated in my election manifesto on which I won\u201d and that he \u201chasn\u2019t been asked for his view\u201d since the report was published.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCommittee members will meet later today to discuss the issue, although Norris will be required to leave the room for the duration of the meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The West of England Combined Authority Committee (WECA) has called an emergency meeting today to determine whether Metro Mayor Dan Norris spent taxpayers\u2019 money \u2018unlawfully\u2019. Norris, who was elected in 2021, covered a First bus in a wrap to advertise WECA\u2019s \u2018birthday buses\u2019 scheme. Since launching in August, the scheme has offered anyone living in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":287,"featured_media":38331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38319"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38414,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38319\/revisions\/38414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Steve Smith, Conservative Councillor for Westbury-on-Trym and Henleaze, thinks Norris has gone too far, saying: \u201cIf you look at similar material that gets put out by the Mayor of London \u2013 another combined authority mayor \u2013 it doesn\u2019t say Sadiq Khan with a big picture of Sadiq Kahn on. Which is what Dan did here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou have to be aware when the taxpayer\u2019s paid for it. There is a line that you don\u2019t cross, and it\u2019s my view that he was certainly skirting over that line if not completely crossing it with these [adverts].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Norris has defended himself and explained \u201cI remain steadfast in my view that mayors are meant to be visible, and this was stated in my election manifesto on which I won\u201d and that he \u201chasn\u2019t been asked for his view\u201d since the report was published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Committee members will meet later today to discuss the issue, although Norris will be required to leave the room for the duration of the meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The West of England Combined Authority Committee (WECA) has called an emergency meeting today to determine whether Metro Mayor Dan Norris spent taxpayers\u2019 money \u2018unlawfully\u2019. Norris, who was elected in 2021, covered a First bus in a wrap to advertise WECA\u2019s \u2018birthday buses\u2019 scheme. Since launching in August, the scheme has offered anyone living in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":287,"featured_media":38331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38319"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38414,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38319\/revisions\/38414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"A](\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Bus-ad-WECA.jpg\")