BLACKBIRD LEYS councillor Rae Humberstone officially became Oxford’s newest Lord Mayor this afternoon after being appointed at Oxford City Council’s annual meeting.

He replaced Mohammed Abbasi as mayor for the year 2015/16, the city’s 56th Lord Mayor.

As is tradition, he was appointed because he was the longest-serving councillor who had never been mayor before.

He has been a Labour councillor for Blackbird Leys since 2005.

His first move as mayor was to appoint Colin Cook as deputy Lord Mayor.

Sajjad Malik replaced Mr Humberstone as the Sheriff of Oxford.

The meeting in Oxford Town Hall, which lasted just 15 minutes, saw unanimous votes and a loud chorus of ‘ayes’ for each of the three appointments.

The first recorded mayor of Oxford was Turchillus, who held the post from 1122 to 1123. There was a mayor every year until 1962 when the title of Lord Mayor was given to Oxford by the Queen.

After the meeting, there was a public ceremony where the new appointments took over the garb from their predecessors.

At 5.45pm the bells at Carfax Tower were rung by the Oxford Society of Change Ringers to mark the occasion.