THE man who lost out in his bid to become the Mayor of Worcester has revealed his anguish - saying his dream had been "snatched away in a moment of skulduggery".

Councillor Paul Denham has spent the last year as the city's deputy mayor - a role which normally leads to the occupier taking the ceremonial chains after 12 months.

He was nominated as Labour's candidate for mayor on Tuesday, but despite getting 17 votes, including support from the Lib Dem and Green, became victim to the Conservative/Cllr Alan Amos coup.

In an emotional blog post written yesterday, he revealed how much work he'd put into preparing to be the Mayor of Worcester.

He said: "My plans to send disadvantaged Worcester children on adventure holiday breaks with the Youth Hostels Association, with assistance from Action For Children will not now happen.

"Worcester Volunteer Centre, which needs funds to recruit and train volunteers who are badly needed to patch up gaps in council services, will not get its share of the mayor's fundraising.

"The Air Ambulance charity which needs to build a new helipad at Worcestershire Royal Hospital will not get mayoral help."

He said Cllr Amos had "wrecked" all of his plans, claiming it was due to "a dirty deal" that "gives politics a bad name".

Amid yesterday's criticism the new city council leader, Councillor Simon Geraghty, stepped in to support the mayor.

"Nobody can say he is a 'staunch Conservative' or a 'Labour stooge' - Alan is clearly an independent," he said.

"When we heard he was resigning from Labour, we thought 'it's a very tight scenario, what would be the best outcome'.

"It dawned upon us that having Alan as mayor would be a good solution.

"He's handling a pretty remarkable situation very well."