Bradford’s longest-serving councillor is to be the city’s next Lord Mayor.

John Godward has been nominated by the Labour group, whose turn it is to put forward the district’s first citizen.

Councillor Godward has served on the Council since 1980.

He is due to become the Lord Mayor of Bradford on May 19 next year. His wife Jean will become the Lady Mayoress.

He takes over the Mayoralty from Liberal Democrat Councillor Howard Middleton.

Coun Godward said: “I am pleased and delighted to have received this nomination and I will do my very best during my term of office to support the regeneration of this city and the district’s towns and villages.

“I will also seek to promote the image of Bradford as a city which is a caring city and district and which people can have confidence in.”

Coun Godward serves on the health improvement committee and the corporate parenting committee and has held several senior positions within the Council having been chairman of social services twice and the first portfolio holder for social services in 2000. He was Deputy Lord Mayor in 2006.

He has worked for several charities such as the Church of England Children’s Society, Help The Aged, and the British Epilepsy Association.

He also spent 23 years as chief officer of Airedale Community Health Council before he took early retirement in 2003.

Fellow Labour councillor Naveeda Ikram will be Deputy Lord Mayor. She was the first British Pakistani woman to be elected to the Council, when she won her Little Horton seat in 2004.

In 2007 she was one of two Bradford councillors picked for an innovative 18-month programme designed to identify future leaders.

Coun Ikram qualified for Next Generation, developed by the Leadership Centre for Local Government.

She is deputy chairman of the social care improvement committee and Bradford West area committee, as well as sitting on the standards committee and education and social services appeals panels.