It's not about you Dan, okay?

Back in November, we wrote this piece about the fiasco surrounding a scrapped initiative to supposedly promote a campaign to recruit more bus drivers and also, a birthday month free bus travel offer: £10,000 - the cost of hubris 24.11.23. The promotion was going to take the form of decals on the side of a bus, as shown in the illustration above. The reason the promotion was scrapped at the last minute, after the considerable expense of producing and then applying the decals to the bus, was that the images of Dan Norris (the metro mayor of the West of England Combined Authority a.k.a. WECA) and his dog were too prominent. So prominent that it looked more like a promotional for Dan Norris than a campaign to recruit more drivers and encourage more people to use the buses. This is what we had to say about this utter shambles in the post linked to above:

You couldn't make this up could you? If you propose to blow £10,000 on plastering a bus with promotional decals, isn't it a good idea to run the mock ups of how it will look past a few people for their opinions? I used to work as a finished artworker in the packaging industry and nothing ever got produced without mock ups being subjected to some very close and critical scrutiny. In this instance with the bus decals, it would appear that the most basic checks were simply not undertaken before the decals were produced and applied to the bus in question. That's just unprofessional, full stop...

Then there's the staggering level of hubris involved in thinking that plastering massive images of yourself on the side of a bus is going to make the public think you're doing a great job. Images so large they distracted attention away from the considerably more important messages about the free travel initiative and the driver recruitment campaign. How far up your own arse do you have to be to think that this is even remotely a good idea and will not backfire in any way? We thought Marvin Rees, the soon to be departing mayor of Bristol was the master of bullshit but, Dan Norris s certainly giving him a run for his money with this...

In a report, WECA's top legal and financial officers concluded that the expenditure of £10,000 on the bus promotion was unlawful because it looked like a promotional for Dan Norris rather than the initiatives it was supposed to promote. Which still begs the unanswered question which is the massive elephant in the room in this fiasco - why the f**k wasn't the design pictured above checked for compliance before the decals went into production and were then placed on the side of the bus? Someone should have reviewed those designs and told Dan Norris in no uncertain terms, 'it's not about you Dan, okay?' There's a very basic failure of process here that amid all of the posturing and grandstanding, no one appears to want to address.

When you blow £10,000 of tax payers money on a promotional initiative that never hit the road, it should have consequences. The kind of consequences that would ensure a debacle like this never happens again. That would require a meeting of all of the leaders of the councils that comprise WECA - Bristol City Council, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset (BANES) - to discuss the findings of the report and then make a decision. There have been three attempts to convene such a meeting. The meeting finally happened at the third attempt but, it took place without a delegate from Bristol City Council. It's all explained in this article from the Bristol Post: Dan Norris £10K bus wrap fiasco 'clearly unlawful' but no formal finding made - Adam Postans, Local Democracy Reporter | Bristol Post | 14.12.23. Warning, this is painful reading which will raise your blood pressure!

The meeting, attended by the South Gloucestershire leader, Cllr. Claire Young and the BANES leader, Cllr. Kevin Guy, concluded that the expenditure was unlawful. However, they didn't pass a formal resolution to that effect because Bristol City Council didn't send anyone to attend the meeting. While a formal resolution wasn't made, the meeting sent the following directions to the Head of Paid Services at WECA:

“Invite the authority’s external auditors to carefully consider the way in which this matter has proceeded with particular reference to the existing statutory recommendations; Implement a code of practice protocol to be followed in all mayoral marketing and communications activity moving forward."

“Carry on with the implementation of the corrective measures set out in the report and report progress back to the audit committee; To take a line-by-line report to audit committee on spend against the mayoral budget in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years in order to assist and inform the code of practice protocol and inform organisational learning in the future.”

It's pretty well known that WECA are dysfunctional, as detailed in a report by the auditors, Grant Thornton: 'Damning' WECA report into council chief spat prompts plea to 'play nicely' - Adam Postans, Local Democracy Reporter | Bristol Post | 21.11.23. This latest shambles with deeply flawed bus decals that got all the way to being produced and slapped on the side of a bus before anyone realised there was a problem, plus that fact that it took three attempts at holding a meeting to discuss the situation but was unable to issue a formal resolution, pretty much sums up how bad things are.

Our communities are run by these clowns. Whether it's the dysfunctional shitshow that's Bristol City Council or the farce that's WECA, these people make decisions that impact our lives and hit our wallets. They're supposed to be serving the residents, not puffing up their over-inflated egos or engaging in the kind of squabbling that make my two grandchildren (one and a half years and four and a half years) look like reasonable, balanced people by comparison. We need to withdraw our consent for these clowns to think they can carry on screwing us over without any consequences. Any creative ideas on how to achieve that will be more than welcome:)

Last, but possibly not least, we have this coming up: Plonker/s of the year? 10.11.23. After this debacle, WECA are definitely one of the front runners for this award which will be made on New Year's Eve. What do you think?