Our Governance

Following the abolition of the West Yorkshire Metropolitan Council in 1986, the duty to perform many of the functions which the Metropolitan Council had performed fell to the five, new district councils; Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield.

Amongst these duties was the provision of Archaeology and Trading Standards services. The West Yorkshire authorities already delivered a shared Archive Service via a Joint Committee arrangement and were able to continue to benefit from the advantages in maintaining the provision of more services on a county-wide basis by extending the Joint Committee to deliver Archaeology, Archives and Trading Standards together. 

Each of the five districts provides funding to the Joint Committee based on its population as a proportion of the whole of West Yorkshire. This means that Leeds District Council pay the largest amount, as they are the most populous of the five districts, followed by Bradford, Kirklees, Wakefield and Calderdale.

This system has allowed each of the Archaeology, Archives and Trading Standards services to benefit from economies of scale and so provide specialist staff, expertise and resources across West Yorkshire. These services have been shown to be effective, efficient and offer exceptional value for money.

This example of five district councils co-operating to provide high-performing and quality services has been held up nationally as an example to be followed.

In 1997, after a decade of this system, the benefits were apparent. It was recognised however that there was a duplication of resources and accordingly a Joint Service was created encompassing Archaeology, Archives and Trading Standards. The Joint Services have combined administrative, personnel and information technology sections and so is able to provide more resources to delivering a service for the benefit of all West Yorkshire citizens.

Our Governance Structure

Under the Joint Committee system, each district council is represented by its Leader and three other Members, plus nominated substitute members when required to ensure quorate at meetings. In addition to the Joint Committee, there are three sub-committees and the Management Team of West Yorkshire Joint Services itself.