A strategic authority, with responsibilities for roads, public transport, planning, emergency services and waste disposal, it was composed of 88 directly elected members drawn from the five metropolitan boroughs of West Yorkshire.

Established with reference to the Local Government Act 1972, elections in 1973 brought about the county council's launch as a shadow authority, several months before West Yorkshire (its zone of influence) was officially created on 1 April 1974.

The Coat of arms of West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council was granted by letters patent in 1975.

The first election to the council was held in 1973, initially operating as a shadow authority before coming into its powers on 1 April 1974.

In 2012, plans to revive a top-tier administrative combined authority for West Yorkshire were revealed, with Peter McBride, cabinet member for housing and investment and councillor for Kirklees, stating "what we are recreating in effect is the West Yorkshire County Council in another form, which the government abolished in 1986 but has come to realise that you need a body of that size".