Board members at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority have “fallen prey to multiple investigations, poor behaviour and political point scoring”, its interim chief executive has said.

Gordon Mitchell believes the authority needs to back decisions once made and not send mixed messages to government.

“In recent months, the top of the organisation has fallen prey to intense internal debate, multiple investigations, public displays of conflict and poor behaviour and political point scoring,” he said.

“This has strongly contributed to a lack of focus on its responsibilities and, as a result, senior political and management capacity has been significantly diverted from the overriding purpose of the Combined Authority.”

Mr Mitchell presented his assessment to the Combined Authority’s Board of the issues it had.

He feels while there needed to be “proper debate” among members, he said they needed to get behind the majority decision “for the benefit of the area”.

Board members, who include the mayor, district council leaders and business representatives, said that they recognised changes already being made and accepted that there was a lot more to be done.

“I have spent time with all of them [Board members] now and I find all these leaders to be individuals who are very committed to their area and get the best for it,” said Mr Mitchell.

“The challenge for them coming into the Combined Authority Board is how to balance the local interests with interests for the wider area.

“In terms of the conduct of the Board, it’s important to be realistic about this.

“There is no expectation that the leaders of the councils will agree on every single issue that they ever come to debate; there will be different views and different points of view.”

Mr Mitchell believes all members need to support the majority decision for the benefit of their area.

“Even if they have taken time to express different views, if the interests of the area are to be clear on the things they agree on, then there needs to be proper debate,” he said.

“That is the difference we need to see, not that everyone just becomes meek, mild and quiet, that’s not good at all.”

The Board approved the creation of an independent improvement board.

This will provide advice and challenge the Combined Authority with the aim to support the organisation delivering the improvements.

Mr Mitchell recognised that the authority faced challenges in achieving its aims.

In the shorter term, he said challenges were being “exacerbated by what is going on nationally”, highlighting uncertainty around government perspectives on different policies and public sector funding.

In the medium to longer term, Mr Mitchell said the challenge was to go through the process of agreeing aims and voicing that to government.

He also said the authority needed to agree a second deal with the government, as he said other combined authorities had done, to get wider responsibilities and increased funding.

But Mr Mitchell is confident that the Combined Authority had the ability to move forward.

“To get the agreement [with government] at some point over the next year for five years funding would be a really big thing,” he said.

“But that needs everyone to get behind it and not send mixed messages to the government of the day.

“[The authority needs] to be as clear as possible with government and not give three different views.”

Mr Mitchell took on the chief executive role on a temporary basis, and he said he expects to begin the work of recruiting a permanent replacement in the new year.

When it is time to leave the authority, he said he hopes to leave it in a position with a number of longer-term plans in place, including the outline strategic plan.

He aims to have plans for the bus network set out, as well as ‘sketching out’ the second government deal and having the organisation fully staffed with people happy to work at the authority.

Mr Mitchell added: “That will feel like a transformation for everyone and that sets everything up for a really good next several years and to get that benefit for the area.”