A WELL-known North Lancashire councillor is to be the next Mayor of Lancaster, his adopted city.

Kellett ward councillor Roger Mace was appointed Mayor-elect by the city council and will take over from the present Mayor, Cllr Robert Redfern, in May.

Cllr Mace moved to Nether Kellet from Manchester in 1976 when he was appointed senior lecturer in accounting and finance at Lancaster University, where he worked until 1997.

He founded his own business as a designer and writer of computer software.

Cllr Mace has represented Kellet, now consisting of Arkholme, Borwick, Nether Kellet, Over Kellet and Priest Hutton, on the city council since 1999 and is a former leader of the Conservative group and leader of the council.

He and his wife Joyce, who will be Mayoress, have two sons and a daughter.

Cllr Mace was born in Birmingham and qualified as a chartered accountant after education at Solihull School, Bristol University and the London School of Economics.

He has been chairman of governors at Carnforth High School, a parish councillor at Nether Kellet and a founder member of the Friends of Nether Kellet School, where his children were pupils, the local environmental group EPIK (Environmental Protection in Kellet), and the Kellet's Twinning Committee. Both Nether and Over Kellet are twinned with Bussieres, near Lyon, in France.

He was treasurer of the North Lancashire Counselling Service and has been a member of the Friends of Lancaster City Museum since its formation and chairman since 2014.

He is also a member of Lunesdale Camera Club and Lancaster Military Heritage Group.

A follower of Conservative politics since early schooldays, he is a former vice-chairman of the political research organisation the Bow Group and a founder member and current trustee of Morecambe and Lunesdale Conservative Association.

At the full council meeting he was proposed as Mayor-elect by Cllr Malcolm Thomas and seconded by Cllr Karen Leytham.