A £1.7 million surplus in an authority’s budget has sparked accusations of poor financial planning.

It is now just over a year since the UK Government devolved some powers to the West and helped bind three of its councils together under a new ‘Metro Mayor.’

The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) is made up of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset councils. North Somerset voted not to join.

At the end of the financial year, the organisation has ended up with £1.7million more in its coffers than expected. And although that puts WECA a long way from some public organisations mired in debt, not everyone is happy.

Speaking at a WECA Overview and Scrutiny meeting last Wednesday, Councillor Tim Ball, from B&NES Council, said: “It’s good to hear there’s so much money sloshing around. Is this down to poor projections being set out initially? It seems very much to me that someone’s put their finger in the air and guessed what sort of money is required.

“I’m not sure what to make of this. I’m looking at this and thinking ‘hang on, who did these projections?’

Mark Angus, Financial Services Manager at WECA, put the surplus – which amounted to a £1.4 million underspend and an extra £240,000 of income – on a delay in staff recruitment, a lack of uptake on a bus scheme and “one-off factors,” such as the snowy weather in March.

He added: “It’s fair to say that in its first twelve months, any brand new organisation will have uncertainty in the projections that are made.

“It takes a certain amount of time to recruit, particularly to the senior posts.”

The Mayor’s fund, which is managed separately to the main WECA budget, also posted a £609,000 surplus. The budgets above are forecasts for the 2017/2018 financial year based on data from April 2017 to January 2018.

Jack Pitts