THE city has a new mayor as Jabba Riaz has been voted in by councillors.

Councillor Riaz, who has returned for the Labour party in Cathedral ward, has served as deputy mayor for the past year and was sworn in at Worcester City Council's annual meeting this evening (May 15).

Councillors also elected Cllr Marc Bayliss as leader and Cllr Adrian Gregson as deputy leader.

Green councillor Louis Stephen will chair the policy and resources committee. Cllr Bayliss and Cllr Gregson will sit as joint vice chairman.

A Green councillor will sit it on every committee except for the income generation committee.

The council will appoint all councillors to all of the city council's committees.

The mayor's civic service will take place on June 24 and an inaugural banquet will follow on September 7.

Cllr Riaz has selected St Richard's Hospice, Worcester Community Trust, and Worcester Live as his chosen charities for the year.

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 introduced 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.