A row has broken out after the West of England Combined Authority (Weca) decided to spend £8million to move to “lavish” new offices. The organisation, comprising Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset councils and led by metro mayor Dan Norris, launched an urgent search for a new base last month after the landlord of its headquarters near Temple Meads told it to leave by December.
Weca has now signed a deal to take over a four-storey complex in Redcliffe. But South Gloucestershire Council cabinet member Cllr Ben Burton has criticised both the central Bristol location and the cost, which is £200,000 a year more than it currently pays to rent the ground floor at 3 Rivergate.
He says the local authority offered Weca a whole floor of its main offices in Yate, next to the new park and ride and a short walk from the train station, but was snubbed because of a “snobbish attitude” towards the town from a “sneering metropolitan-based elite”. The combined authority says it is “essential” to be based in Bristol to recruit and retain staff because more than 90 per cent of its employees live in the city area and most commute by public transport or active travel.
