A new Mayor for Worcester will be elected tomorrow, Tuesday, May 15.

After six weeks of campaigning for the local elections held on May 3, 35 new and returning members of Worcester City Council will meet at the Guildhall for the authority’s annual meeting.

At the meeting a new Mayor and deputy mayor, and a leader and deputy leader will be elected.

Councillor Jabba Riaz, who was returned for the Labour party in Cathedral ward, has spent the last year as deputy mayor and it would be usual for him to be elected as mayor, although it is not unknown for another candidate to be elected.

Under a recent modification to the council’s rules, the leader of the council should come from the Conservative group as it has the most councillors at 17, with a deputy leader from the labour party, the second largest group.

The rule was brought in in late March and it meant that the Conservative group leader, Councillor Marc Bayliss took the leader’s job, with Councillor Adrian Gregson, Labour group leader, becoming deputy leader.

There is nothing in the agenda to suggest that change to the council’s constitution could be changed back at the annual meeting, even though Labour and Green councillors, who opposed the Conservative motion for change in March have 18 votes combined, just enough to bring in a return to the old system where any councillor who could get enough support in the chamber could be elected as leader.

Aside from the largely ceremonial election of mayor and leader, the political make-up of the policy committees will also be discussed and decided, with the number of councillors from the three parties on the Policy & Resources, Communities, and Environment Committees and a number of sub-committees.

The meeting starts at 7pm at the council chamber in the Guildhall. Members of the public are entitled to attend.