Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the majority of local government services in Leeds. It has the second-largest population of any council in the United Kingdom with approximately 800,000 inhabitants living within its area; only Birmingham City Council has more. Since 1 April 2014, it has been a constituent council of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Leeds (often spelt Leedes) was a manor and then a town, receiving a charter from King Charles I as a 'Free Borough' in 1626 giving it powers of self-government, leading to the formation of the Leeds Corporation to administer it.[1][2] The leader was an alderman, the first holder being Sir John Savile.[3] A second charter, in 1661 from King Charles II, granted the title Mayor to Thomas Danby,[3] The Corporation continued until 1835 when the Municipal Corporation Act was passed dissolving this and other town corporations and giving a new governance and electoral structure.[1] In 1893 Leeds became a city and in 1897 the leader became Lord Mayor.
Leeds City Council is responsible for providing all statutory local authority services in Leeds, except for those it provides jointly in conjunction with other West Yorkshire Authorities. This includes education, housing, planning, transport and highways, social services, libraries, leisure and recreation, waste collection, waste disposal, environmental health and revenue collection. The council is one of the largest employers in West Yorkshire, with around 33,000 employees.[4]
Education Leeds
Education Leeds was set up in 2001 as a non-profit making company wholly owned by Leeds City Council to provide education support services for the council.[5] For its first five years it operated as a public-private partnership between the Council and Capita. The senior councillors of the council's executive board voted in March 2010 to stop using Education Leeds to provide services from 31 March 2011,[6] thereby effectively causing it to cease operation.
Housing
Until 1 October 2013, Leeds City Council's housing stock was managed and operated by three Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) since 2007. They were wholly owned by the council but operated as autonomous and self-governing organisations. The ALMOs, which are arranged on a regional basis were:
As of 1 October 2013, the ALMOs returned to Leeds City Council and all management of council housing stock became the responsibility of Housing Leeds. At this point, the ALMOs ceased to exist.
Management of more than 2000 homes in Belle Isle is carried out by Belle Isle Tenant Management Organisation, the largest tenant management organisation in the UK outside London.[10]
Leeds Museums & Galleries is a museum service run by Leeds City Council.[11]
Established in 1821, it is the largest local authority-run museum service in England, with one of the larger and more significant multidisciplinary collections in the UK, looking after 1.3 million objects.[12] The service is run and primarily funded by Leeds City Council (LCC), and plays a significant role in shaping the cultural life of the city, but as a leading museum service it has a regional and national reputation and role. In 2012 the organisation achieved Major Partner Museum status from Arts Council England, which brought significant additional funding and further national prominence and expectation.[13]
The service has at times run major events across the city, with visitors numbering in the millions, such as the 2014-19 Legacies of War Project, which examined how Leeds was affected by the First World War,[14] and developed teaching materials for schools.[15]
West Yorkshire Joint Services provides services for the five district local authorities in West Yorkshire (Leeds, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield) in the areas of archaeology, archives, ecology, materials testing, public analyst, and trading standards.[17]
Council structures
Overview and scrutiny
The executive and workings of the council are overseen by six scrutiny boards. These panels involve councillors from all parties and some independent members. Scrutiny boards are able to review decisions taken by the executive or by officers of the council and to refer them for further consideration.
Regulatory
The licensing committee of the council is drawn from councillors from all parties and is responsible for entertainment, refreshment, personal and premises licences established under the Licensing Act 2003. Three plans panels are responsible for determining planning applications which have not been delegated to officers for decision, such as large or controversial applications or those in which a councillor or officer has a personal interest.
Community committees
Ten community committees are responsible for managing certain area-specific budgets and responsibilities, such as community centres and CCTV, in partnership with local communities. Committees also exert considerable influence over other areas of local interest such as street-cleansing and community policing.
The Lord Mayor of Leeds is a ceremonial, non-partisan position elected annually by and from the councillors. As well as acting as the chair of the council, the Lord Mayor represents the City of Leeds at events within and outside the city.[18]
During the mayoral year, the Lord Mayor's Charity Appeal raises funds for one or more charities of the mayor's choice.
Leadership
The council operates a Leader and Cabinet executive as defined under Section 11 of the Local Government Act 2000. The executive board of the council currently consists of eight executive members with portfolio responsibilities from the ruling Labour group, and the leaders the two biggest opposition groups (Conservative and Liberal Democrat).[20]
Since February 2021, the Leader of the council has been James Lewis (Labour). He succeeded Judith Blake, the first woman ever to lead the council.[21][22]
The council is composed of 99 councillors, three for each of the city's electoral wards.
One councillor for each ward – a third of all of the total councillors – is elected at every council election, which are held in three of every four years. Each councillor is also elected to serve a four-year term. This only differs following a boundary review, where all council seats must be re-elected. The most recent full council elections were in 1980, 2004 and 2018. The latter election saw all three ward council seats up for re-election, with each of the three successful candidates in each ward awarded a unique one, two or four-year term respectively with longer terms given to the candidates with the highest number of votes.[50]
Since the 2011 council election, the council has been run by a Labourmajority administration. Between the 2004 and 2011 elections, the council's political composition meant no one party had a full majority and therefore there was no overall control. During this time, a coalition administration between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats was formally agreed. Throughout the coalition, both parties' Group Leaders jointly shared the office of Leader of the council, each holding it for six months in turn. However, in 2010, the Labour Group regained control as a minority administration with the support of the two Green Party councillors.[51][52][53]
Beforehand, the ward boundaries had not been amended since the last review in 1979. The 1979 review increased the number of wards in Leeds from 32 to 33, thereby increasing the number of councillors from 96 to 99. The 1980 council election was the first to be contested based on the new ward boundaries across the city and therefore it was a full council, all-out election where all of the 99 council seats were up for election.
The boundary review between February 2002 and July 2003 was completed by the Boundary Committee for England.[58] The review recommended the retention of 99 councillors representing 33 wards across the city, but suggested substantial alterations to ward boundaries to reduce the level of variance between different wards. Prior to the boundary review, based on the 2001 electorate, the largest and smallest wards respectively were Morley South (22,167 electors) and Hunslet (10,955 electors). Following the review all wards had an electorate within 10% of the average of all 33 wards across the city.[59]
A similar process was completed in November 2017 by the Boundary Committee's successor, the Local Government Boundary Commission for England. The process had held consultations since July 2016. The biggest ward boundary changes saw the creation of two new wards in Headingley & Hyde Park and Little London and Woodhouse from the previous Hyde Park & Woodhouse and Headingley wards. City & Hunslet also became Hunslet & Riverside.[60] Following the example of previous reviews, all of the city's councillors were re-elected together again based on the new ward boundaries in May 2018.
In September 2012 the council announced its intention to introduce a bring your own device policy as part of cost saving measures.[61] In the same year, the council was fined £95,000 by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) after it sent confidential and sensitive information about a child in care to the wrong recipient. Commenting on Leeds and other authorities who had made similar data protection breaches, the ICO said "It would be far too easy to consider these breaches as simple human error. The reality is that they are caused by councils treating sensitive personal data in the same routine way they would deal with more general correspondence. Far too often in these cases, the councils do not appear to have acknowledged that the data they are handling is about real people, and often the more vulnerable members of society."[62]
Notes
↑ Executive Member for Children and Families (2019–2021)
↑ Executive Member for Environment and Active Lifestyles (2017–2021)
↑ Executive Member for Climate Change, Transport and Sustainable Development (2021)
↑ Executive Member for Health and Wellbeing (2021)
↑ Under the terms of the coalition agreement between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives from May 2004, the full-time post of Leader of the Council swapped between the leaders of the two parties' council groupings every six months:
Mark Harris (Liberal Democrats) from 28 June to 30 November 2004, 24 May to 30 November 2005, 23 May to 30 November 2006, 24 May to 30 November 2007, and
Andrew Carter (Conservatives) from 1 December 2004 to 23 May 2005, 1 December 2005 to 22 May 2006, 1 December 2006 to 24 May 2007.
↑ Richard Brett was elected to replace Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Leeds City Council after Harris stepped down on 30 November 2007. Under the terms of the coalition agreement between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives from May 2004, the full-time post of Leader of the Council swapped between the leaders of the two parties' council groupings every six months:
Andrew Carter (Conservatives) from 1 December 2007 to 22 May 2008, 1 December 2008 to 21 May 2009, 1 December 2009 to 27 May 2010, and
Brett (Liberal Democrats) from 22 May to 30 November 2008, 21 May to 30 November 2009.
One third of Leeds City Council in the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England is elected each year, followed by no election in one year out of every four years. A total of 99 councillors have been elected from 33 electoral wards across Leeds since 1980.
Kirklees Council is the local authority providing most local government services for the metropolitan borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. The council is one of five constituent members of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Leeds, commonly known as the City of Leeds, is a metropolitan borough with city status in West Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough includes the administrative centre of Leeds and the towns of Farsley, Garforth, Guiseley, Horsforth, Morley, Otley, Pudsey, Rothwell, Wetherby and Yeadon. It has a population of 809,036 (2021), making it technically the second largest city in England by population behind Birmingham, since London is not a single local government entity. Local governance sits with Leeds City Council and the city's 32 Parish Councils.
Middleton Park is an electoral ward of Leeds City Council in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, including the urban suburbs of Middleton and Belle Isle. The ward is named after the public park and former manorial estate of Middleton Park.
The 2015 Leeds City Council election took place on Thursday 7 May 2015 to elect members of Leeds City Council in England. It was held on the same day as the 2015 general election and other local elections across the UK.
The 2018 Leeds City Council election took place on Thursday 3 May 2018 to elect members of Leeds City Council in England. It was held on the same day as other UK local elections across England.
Bramley and Stanningley is an electoral ward of Leeds City Council in west Leeds, West Yorkshire, covering the former industrial area of Bramley and district of Stanningley.
Guiseley and Rawdon is an electoral ward of Leeds City Council in the north west of Leeds, West Yorkshire, covering both the town of Guiseley, the majority of the village of Rawdon and the southern part of the town of Yeadon.
Hunslet and Riverside is an electoral ward of Leeds City Council in Leeds, West Yorkshire, largely covering the inner city area of Hunslet to the south of the city centre. It was created in advance of the 2018 council election.
Pudsey is an electoral ward of Leeds City Council in west Leeds, West Yorkshire, including the town of Pudsey and residential areas of Swinnow and Tyersal.
Roundhay is an electoral ward of Leeds City Council in north east Leeds, West Yorkshire, covering the suburb of the same name, Gledhow and Oakwood.
Weetwood is an electoral ward of Leeds City Council in north west Leeds, West Yorkshire, covering suburban areas including Far Headingley, Ireland Wood, Tinshill, Weetwood and West Park.
The Morley Borough Independents (MBI) are a local political party in Leeds, West Yorkshire, founded in 2004.
The 2021 Leeds City Council election took place on Thursday 6 May 2021 to elect members of Leeds City Council in England. It was held on the same day as other local elections across England and the rest of the UK, including the inaugural West Yorkshire mayoral election.
The Mayor of West Yorkshire is a directly elected mayor responsible for the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire in England. The Mayor chairs and leads the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, and assumes the office and powers of the West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner.
The inaugural West Yorkshire mayoral election was held on Thursday 6 May 2021 to elect the Mayor of West Yorkshire. It took place simultaneously on the same day as other local elections across the United Kingdom, including council elections in each of the five metropolitan boroughs of West Yorkshire.
The 2022 United Kingdom local elections took place on Thursday 5 May 2022. These included elections for all London borough councils, for all local authorities in Wales and Scotland. Most seats in England were last up for election in 2018 and in Scotland and Wales in 2017. The elections coincided with the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election. In 91 cases, most of them in Wales, council seats were uncontested, each having only one candidate. Three seats in Scotland remained unfilled as no one nominated to fill them.
The 2022 Leeds City Council election took place on Thursday 5 May 2022 to elect members of Leeds City Council in England. It was held on the same day as other local elections across the United Kingdom.
The 2023 Leeds City Council election took place on Thursday 4 May 2023 to elect members of Leeds City Council in England. It was held on the same day as other local elections across the United Kingdom.
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