Scrutiny of the new North East mayor is “nowhere near enough” as things stand, councillors have warned.

There are calls for beefed-up oversight of the work of Kim McGuinness and the recently-formed North East Combined Authority (NECA), which covers the areas of Tyne and Wear, Northumberland, and Durham. Ms McGuinness’ election in May followed the agreement of a new devolution for the region, already worth more than £6 billion, with the mayor having been handed major funding and decision-making powers over critical areas including transport and housing.

But politicians tasked with keeping the new administration in check raised concerns this week that arrangements to scrutinise NECA are not up to scratch. Members of the authority’s overview and scrutiny committee met for the first time on Tuesday morning and aired fears that, under current proposals, they will not be able to properly hold the mayor and her cabinet to account.

They complained that the committee has just four meetings scheduled for the entire 2024/25 year – none of which include opportunities to question any of the council leaders who make up Ms McGuinness’ cabinet, though the mayor herself is due to appear in October.

Gateshead Lib Dem councillor Dawn Welsh said: “North East devolution is a fantastic opportunity but we need to get it right. That is across all parties and we need to work together to get it right. The scrutiny function is crucial to that.

“We need more scrutiny not less. Four meetings a year is nowhere near enough, at all. It is a starting point, but we aren’t going to be able to do the job we need to do to make sure North East devolution works.”

She called for the creation of a series of sub-groups to carry out more detailed scrutiny of “heavyweight” topics like transport – with the mayor’s plans including radical reforms to take control of the region’s bus network and an expansion of the Tyne and Wear Metro system. Dominic McDonough, a Conservative from Sunderland City Council, agreed that transport needs to be looked at “with a fine-tooth comb” – saying that bus reform in particular “is often done in the wrong way and we need to get that right”.

Durham Labour’s Rob Crute said he was particularly concerned by the absence of housing issues from the scrutiny committee’s agendas. Newcastle member Linda Wright, a Labour councillor, added: “I don’t think we have enough meetings in the year and I don’t know why we aren’t getting cabinet reports either.”

Janice Gillespie, NECA’s director of finance and investment, told the committee that a suite of plans for each of the seven cabinet members’ portfolios would be published at the end of July and would “give you more sense of detail” around what the authority’s plans are. Committee chair Colin Ferguson, the leader of Newcastle’s Liberal Democrats, said a plan would be developed before the scrutiny panel next meets in October that may include the need to schedule more hearings.