Five West Yorkshire councils have combined their legal teams in an attempt to maximise resources and save around £1.6m a year in legal spend.

The legal teams at Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield councils have come together to form WYLAW, an umbrella group that will share knowledge and data, undertake joint procurement and reduce the need to buy legal advice from external law firms.

WYLAW will also provide an electronic hub through which councils can share information, including work plans, in order to avoid overlap and duplication.

All five councils have said there will be no redundancies arising from WYLAW.

Leeds City councillor Bernard Apha, who was called to the bar in 1950, said: ‘Budgets are very tight and yet there is still a pressing need for legal advice in such complex areas as children law. We had to look at a new way of doing this and WYLAW was the answer. If a certain council has a lawyer with esoteric knowledge, for example, all five councils can now benefit.’

WYLAW is part of a collaborative working programme set up through the Association of West Yorkshire Authorities, which is looking at how councils can work together on regulatory services, human resources and the procurement of children’s external placements.