A defiant Dan Norris has hit back at a finding that he ordered the “unlawful” spending of £10,000 of taxpayers’ money to plaster a bus with three huge photos of himself and his dog.

Former Labour MP, the elected mayor for the West of England Combined Authority, approved the spending for the advertising to promote a free bus travel scheme around the region.

The double decker bus livery was never shown publicly after the combined authority’s interim chief executive learned of the planned promotion and stopped it – fearing the livery was personally promoting the mayor over the scheme.

In the aftermath, an internal report was commissioned to look at how the £10,000 spending was authorised.

The bus wrap featuring pictures of the mayor and his dog, called Angel, was designed to promote a scheme giving people free travel during the month of their birthday.

One image was three metres high, the second two metres high and the third one metre high.

In response, Mr Norris said: “I was not interviewed by the individual undertaking the internal review over the summer and this autumn, nor was I afforded the opportunity to comment on the final report which has just been made public.

“The report outlines important operational changes at the West of England Combined Authority that have already been put in place and others that need to be completed by the spring. I welcome these actions.

“The monitoring officer has challenged the use of my image on the bus wrap.

“However the Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity states: ‘It is acceptable for local authorities to publicise the work done by individual members of the authority, and to present the views of those individuals on local issues. This might be appropriate, for example, when one councillor has been the “face” of a particular campaign’.”

He added: “When Labour first introduced directly elected mayors, the whole point was to have a face that the public could identify as being responsible and accountable for the policies that were being promoted and introduced.

“The bus with advertising would have cost £27 to £40 per day over a year period to travel across our region promoting two key messages – that there is a need for more bus drivers to tackle the severe regional shortage and that all West of England residents are entitled to a month’s free travel through the Birthday Bus scheme.

“I remain steadfast in my view that mayors are meant to be visible and this was stated in my election manifesto on which I won.”

An internal investigation found that Mr Norris “issued a direct verbal instruction to procure the wrapping of the bus to an officer within the mayoral office”.

When the interim chief executive learned of the plan, he ordered the bus not to be used and the launch event to be cancelled, but it still went ahead.

“The interim chief executive’s direct and explicit instruction to stand down the May 23 2023 launch event was not followed,” the report stated.

An extraordinary meeting of the West of England Combined Authority committee is being held on December 1 to discuss the contents of the report.

The committee will be asked whether it agrees with the findings of the report and also decide “what action, if any, it proposes to take in consequence of the report”.

Committee members are the leaders of the South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset councils, Bristol’s directly-elected mayor and Mr Norris, although he will not be present when the report is discussed.

Mr Norris was elected as the mayor in 2021 representing the Labour Party having previously been an MP for Wansdyke between 1997 and 2010.