Wakefield Metropolitan District Council

One of the UK's biggest unions is calling for the Leader of Wakefield Council to resign.

Wakefield Council

Unison says following a recent inspection by education watchdog Ofsted, which rated the council's children's services as "inadequate", that it's time for Peter Box (pictured) to step aside.

The union says the services "have been badly let down by incompetent managers and a bullying culture".

Responding, Mr Box says he's overseen urgent and decisive action to address the concerns raised by Ofsted.

The council's chief executive Merren McRae says there's no evidence to suggest that bullying issues are widespread.

Wakefield Council has written off almost £3.3m in unpaid council tax during the past five years, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

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The local authority has issued more than 100,000 court summons over non-payment since 2013, to try and pursue the outstanding debt.

The figures, revealed as a result of a Freedom of Information request, showed that the amount written off by Wakefield Council since 2013 was the least of all five West Yorkshire councils.

Bradford decided not to pursue £18m worth of debt, Kirklees wrote off £12m, Calderdale £6.5m and Leeds £4m.

We take council tax collection very seriously but also recognise that for various reasons some people may struggle to make payments."

Labour has maintained control of power in Wakefield although it has lost two seats to the Tories.

Ahead of the election there were 53 Labour, seven Conservative, two UKIP and one Independent.

The Tories took Horbury and South Ossett from Labour and also took control of the previously Labour ward Wakefield Rural.

The council is now made up of 52 Labour and 11 Conservative.

The total turnout for the local elections in Wakefield is 26.86%, the city council has announced.