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Mayor 'bitterly regrets' working from home comment

John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporting Service
Amy Holmes
BBC political reporter, Bedfordshire
Ben Schofield/BBC A picture of the Mayor of Bedford Tom Wootton. He has a grey and white beard and moustache and is wearing a pink shirt and a black jacket and tie. He is stood in front of a railway line although the background is out of focus.Ben Schofield/BBC
Conservative Mayor of Bedford Tom Wootton has now said getting more staff into the office was not a strict instruction, but part of a long-standing policy

A mayor says he "bitterly regrets" social media comments about staff working from home, after an independent councillor raised concerns over the council's approach to hybrid working.

The Conservative Mayor of Bedford, Tom Wootton, said in June that "asking them to come in to work as part of a team was really important" and on Facebook wrote "you do not build (strong workplace cultures) on Teams calls from the sofa".

He said the change was part of a Stability Plan that had been discussed at a meeting of the authority's executive in April.

But now he has stressed the shift was not a strict instruction, but part of a long-standing policy encouraging staff to come in more regularly.

'High performance culture'

At a meeting of the council's executive, independent councillor Doug McMurdo asked Wootton whether he had "executed" the 10 June announcement that staff were to return to the office three days a week.

In response, the mayor said: "This is not being done as a rule of 'you must return'," and added it was being done "department by department, head of service by head of service".

He added that he "bitterly regrets making the comment about sofas".

In a Facebook post in June, Wootton said: "Good services rely on great teamwork.

"Collaboration, visibility, and a strong workplace culture matter. You do not build that on Teams calls from the sofa."

He had added: "The future of this council rests on a high-performance culture where openness and innovation are not just buzzwords, they are daily practice. Residents expect more. We are raising the bar."

A month later, he says: "We have some wonderful officers, we have some wonderful workers."

"I just think this policy of coming back to the office three days a week is a really good one, and it is one that lots of private industry have benefited from."

At the meeting, McMurdo responded to Wootton: "Some advice I'd give you is to be careful what you put on social media."

McMurdo added that he considered that "council staff being told to return to the office three days a week was a message that should come from the head of paid service, and not the directly elected mayor".

The authority currently employs 1,740 full time staff across the borough.

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