New chief of tourism quits as leader of city council

WAKEFIELD COUNCIL’S longstanding Labour leader Peter Box has announced he is leaving the role at the end of November – days after he was announced as the new chairman of scandal-hit tourism agency Welcome to Yorkshire.

Coun Box – in charge of Wakefield Council since 1998 and first elected as a councillor in 1983 – will not be restanding for re-election in the Altofts and Whitwood ward at next May’s local council elections.

He said he had been planning to step down before becoming the new chairman of Welcome to Yorkshire last week but has now moved his departure date forward.

Coun Box said he was leaving earlier than planned to give the Welcome to Yorkshire role “the attention it needs”.

He was given the role at the troubled tourism agency last week after local council leaders demanded Welcome to Yorkshire’s interim chairman Keith Stewart was replaced as a condition of providing further public funds to the organisation.

Last year, Coun Box narrowly survived a vote of no confidence in his leadership at Wakefield Council held by his own party after coming under pressure following a damning Ofsted report into children’s services which found “serious and widespread” failures in the department.

After taking over at Welcome to Yorkshire last week, Coun Box has promised to increase transparency at the privately run tourist agency, which receives millions of pounds in public-sector funding each year.

The organisation has struggled to recover from the fallout from the resignation of ex-chief executive Sir Gary Verity in March, with subsequent independent inquiries determining his behaviour towards staff had fallen short of expected standards after bullying allegations were made.

It was also found he claimed around £26,000 personal expenses “not incurred wholly for the benefit of Welcome to Yorkshire”.