New chairman for Welcome to Yorkshire
The Leader of Wakefield Council, Councillor Peter Box, has been confirmed as the new chairman of tourism organisation Welcome to Yorkshire.
Commenting on his appointment, Cllr Box said: “I am extremely passionate about our county and all it has to offer and am happy to take this opportunity to build on the remarkable success that Welcome to Yorkshire has achieved, and more importantly regain public confidence in its future.
“There is no doubt that recent events have undermined Welcome to Yorkshire’s achievements and I am absolutely clear that we will be doing things very differently as the organisation becomes as open and transparent as possible.
“There is agreement amongst the county’s leaders that we need to continue to market Yorkshire as a great destination.
“It is my intention that Welcome to Yorkshire now starts a new chapter doing what it does best with a new focus on honesty, transparency and integrity and I look forward to leading this.”
Cllr Box has served as chairman and vice chairman of Local Government Yorkshire and Humber.
He was chairman of the Regional Assembly for Yorkshire and the Humber from 2002, until its abolition in 2009 and chairman of the English Regions Network from 2008-2009.
He became chairman of the LGA’s Economy and Transport Board in 2010 and from 2014 to 2016 chaired the LGA’s Economy, Environment, Housing and Transport Board. He is now a deputy chairman of the LGA and sits on the LGA Executive.
Cllr Box is currently chairman of the Key Cities Group which is about providing cities with more opportunities to boost the economic prosperity of the country.
He chaired the West Yorkshire Combined Authority from 2014 to 2017 and now chairs the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Investment Committee. He is a member of the Leeds City Regions Leader’s Board, the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership and the WYCA Transport Authority.
