Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen
A METRO Mayor has come under fire for being absent from scrutiny meetings.
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has been challenged after he told a Parliamentary committee he had made himself available to scrutiny sessions at his combined authority “multiple times”.
Mr Houchen made the statement during a session being held by MPs investigating the future of devolution in England.
But Councillor Norma Stephenson, who is chairman of the overview and scrutiny committee at the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA), said: “The mayor has not attended a meeting in the last 12 months as was reported in the overview and scrutiny’s annual report.”