CHESTER’S new Lord Mayor has officially taken up his position after the formal investiture at the city’s town hall.

Chester’s new Lord Mayor Cllr John Ebo, Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr Neil Ritchie and Sheriff Cllr Hilarie McNae all took part in the formal ceremony.

It means that keen historian John Ebo has written himself into Chester’s encyclopaedic record books by creating a special piece of history of his own.

Cllr Ebo, 60, is now both Lord Mayor of Chester and chairman of the new Cheshire West and Cheshire Council.

That means that a man with one of the shortest surnames in the English language has taken on the grand title The Right Worshipful Lord Mayor of Chester, Admiral of the Dee and Chairman of the Chester and West Cheshire Council.

“It is a very proud moment,” said the Liverpool-born mortgage broker. “I have the best of both worlds – well over one thousand years of colourful history and the new authority’s exciting vision for the future.”

Cllr Ebo was officially elected chairman of Cheshire West and Chester Council at its first meeting in April but did not become Lord Mayor until this week, when Chester’s Charter Trustees held their first mayor- making ceremony.

The historic dual title does not enable him to wear the 158-year-old mayoral chain at council meetings but would at functions when representing either the mayoralty or both offices.