The region's top politicians finally got together in the same room and agreed something – a £50million green recovery fund – but it took a 90-minute interval to thrash it out behind the scenes.

A meeting of the West of England Combined Authority (Weca) committee was adjourned midway through when metro mayor Dan Norris told the leaders of the three councils that make up Weca that he would not agree to their demands to fund a wish-list of "unrelated projects", calling it "blackmail".

Bristol's Labour mayor Marvin Rees, South Gloucestershire Council leader Conservative Cllr Toby Savage and Bath & North East Somerset Council leader Lib Dem Cllr Kevin Guy fired back, accusing Mr Norris of "insulting" them with a "political rant", causing division and trying to calm choppy waters by "turning on a wave machine".

But after a long delay they agreed a compromise deal and voted through the £50million pot unanimously, without the long list of projects the local authority leaders had wanted Weca to commit money to, including Bath Fashion Museum, Bristol's Albion Dock and rural broadband.

However, it did retain proposals by Mr Rees and Cllrs Savage and Guy requiring detailed projects in the green initiative to be approved by the committee, as well as a review of Weca money.

Afterwards, Labour's Mr Norris hailed it as a "victory for the people of the West of England" and said the fund, a manifesto pledge to pay for retrofitting homes and other environmental schemes, had been accepted with "no strings attached".

The agreement heralded an unexpected breakthrough following months of discord that once again plunged a Weca committee into shambles on Friday, following a boycott by the three council leaders in October in protest at the metro mayor's "unlawful" use of a veto to block their proposals at joint committee, which is Weca plus North Somerset.

Mr Norris has since dropped his claim to that power – which he does have at Weca committee – following fresh legal advice.

But he raised temperatures the day before last week's meeting by branding the council leaders the "Hokey Cokey three", saying they were neither in nor out of agreeing the recovery fund but were "clearly trying to shake something-or-other about" after they published their alternative motion.

It meant tensions were high going into the meeting at Keynsham civic centre where Mr Norris said he would not accept their amendment, including the projects "wish-list", and that without his vote it would fall.

"I feel it is necessary to do this. The three leaders' amendment seeks to link the green recovery fund to other unrelated investment decisions not linked to the climate emergency," he said.

"I'm not going to allow such a spurious link. The decision to fund those projects needs to be considered on their merits, they should not be nodded through just because the green recovery fund is so important and so pressing.

"Frankly that is a form of blackmail, effectively saying 'Earmark funds to these projects or we will block the recovery fund'.

"This isn't about making sure children at a nursery school all get gifts of equal value from Santa, otherwise they have a tantrum.

"The list I'm presented with by the leaders today is not thinking about our region as a whole, it is still thinking about the region in three separate parts. That is not what government is looking for.

"Tackling the climate emergency cannot be conditional on funding a fashion museum in Bath or pushing forward with plans for Thornbury High Street or the Albion Dock/SS Great Britain project."

He suggested the three council leaders took a 10-minute adjournment to reconsider their position and withdraw their amendment.

Mr Rees said the metro mayor should "go home and have a real hard think" about the fact government and private investors needed confidence that Weca's leaders had "built a culture of collaboration" and had a long-term plan.

He said: "Referring to your colleagues as the 'Hokey Cokey', that is unfortunate, but I'm not sure how that relates to the requirement to build the confidence of public and private sector decision makers in our collective commitment, relationships and abilities to get these things done.

"By their very nature, combined authorities are defined to be combined.

"I urge you to have a really hard think and do some deep reflection about the extent to which you've done the job of actually combining the region."

Cllr Guy said he wanted the public to know he had called for an "adult discussion" about the vital fund at a private meeting days earlier but that Mr Norris had said he did not have time for it.

He told Mr Norris: "You're now giving us 10 minutes after you've made a political rant and insulted us as local leaders, describing yourself as Santa, and now you expect us to put it all together in 10 minutes when on Monday you said that all week we didn't have time to do this."

The council leaders then went into another room for a few minutes before Mr Rees returned to ask the metro mayor to join them, which he did so reluctantly, followed by a lengthy delay as a deal was struck.

When the meeting resumed, Mr Rees and Cllrs Savage and Guy said they were pleased a compromise had been reached but that this should have been done long before the meeting, as was customary under previous metro mayor Conservative Tim Bowles.

Cllr Savage said: "The discussions we've had today should really have happened many weeks ago.

"Moments like today result from a failure to meet as a group on a regular basis and that is a lesson for us to learn as we move forward in the spirit of collaboration that the compromise motion sets out.

"I heard you say today you wanted to calm choppy waters. I've never before seen an attempt to calm choppy waters by turning on the wave machine, but I'm pleased that the wave machine has been dialled down over the past hour or so and that we've been able to come to an agreement we can all support and get behind and importantly deliver on the projects that will make meaningful difference to the green economy in every corner of the West of England."

The deal also included two Weca funding decisions that were set for October's aborted meeting – confirmation of £23.65million for Bristol Temple Meads eastern entrance and £2.9million to develop a full business case to open Charfield railway station.