THE next mayor of Bury will be Cllr Trevor Holt.

The Labour councillor who was first elected 36 years ago is the second-longest serving member.

He was previously mayor from 1996 to 1997 and will take over from Cllr Jane Black in May.

The announcement was made by council leader Rishi Shori at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday evening.

Cllr Shori said: “He is somebody I think is very well respected with in the community. He has played an active role in the borough.”

The former cabinet member has dedicated half of his adult life to public service.

He spent many years working in adult services and as recently as 2016 he was the cabinet member for health and wellbeing.

He has sat on a number of committees including the health scrutiny committee, licensing and safety panel and standards committee.

Cllr Holt said: “It is a great honour to be chosen to serve as the mayor of Bury, especially so as this will be the second time round for me.

“It really is one of the best roles that anybody could have and I intend to do my very best for local people. I’ll be using my time as mayor to showcase our borough as a great place to live, work, study and visit and, hopefully, make a real difference to people’s lives.

“I’ll also be raising important funds for my chosen charities which I will announce when I become mayor.”

He was born and educated in the East ward which he now represents.

The former postman has been a governor at a number of local schools including Broad Oak and Fairfield.

He became a councillor in the same year that the council leader was born.

Trevor lives in Bury with his wife Evelyn, who will be the Mayoress.

They have three children, four grandchildren and one great grandchild.

He was born and educated in East Ward, which he represents, and continues to have strong connections with Broad Oak and Fairfield schools.

In 2018, he held onto his seat in East ward with a convincing majority of more than 700 votes beating Conservative candidate Sohail Raja.

Cllr Holt will formally be installed as mayor at the annual council meeting on May 15.