West Yorkshire Combined Authority

West Yorkshire Combined Authority
West Yorkshire within England
Type
Type	Combined authority of West Yorkshire
Houses	Unicameral
Term limits	None
History
Founded	1 April 2014
Preceded by	West Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority
Leadership
Chair	Peter Box CBE Since 1 April 2014
Vice-chair	Tim Swift Since 1 April 2014
Structure
Seats	10 members
Committees	District Engagement Governance and Audit Investment Overview and Scrutiny Transport
Elections
Voting system	Indirect election
Last election	1 April 2014
Meeting place
Wellington House, 40-50 Wellington Street Leeds
Website
www.westyorks-ca.gov.uk

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) is the combined authority for West Yorkshire in England. It was established by statutory instrument under the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 on 1 April 2014. It is a strategic authority with powers over transport, economic development and regeneration. The chair of the authority is Peter Box.

The abolition of West Yorkshire County Council in 1986 left the county without a single authority covering the whole area, although some council functions including archive services and Trading Standards continued to be provided jointly, through West Yorkshire Joint Services, and the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive and West Yorkshire Police continued to operate across the county.

Since April 2007 the Leeds City Region Partnership has evolved to coordinate activities across the Leeds City Region, which includes Barnsley in South Yorkshire and four districts of North Yorkshire, as well as the whole of West Yorkshire. Strategic local governance decisions have been made by the joint committee of the Leeds City Region Leaders Board. A multi-area agreement was established in 2008 and since 2011 economic development has been supported by the Leeds City Region LEP, which forms a business-led local enterprise partnership.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority was proposed in 2012 as part of a "city deal". The combined authority covered only West Yorkshire, and not the other areas of the Leeds City Region. In order to create a combined authority the local authorities had to undertake a governance review and produce a scheme of their proposals. A consultation ran from November 2013 to January 2014 and the responses were published in February 2014. The combined authority was established on 1 April 2014, following statutory approval on 31 March 2014.