FOR Bury’s next mayor donning the ceremonial robe and chain will be the latest in a long line of public service roles.

Cllr Jane Black will be sworn in at a Mayor-making ceremony the town hall on Wednesday, watched by her 87-year-old mother, Phyllis Mendelsohn, a retired school teacher.

And while the mother-of-two says she is “thrilled and honoured” to be succeeding Cllr Dorothy Gunther as Mayor, it will be yet another chapter in a life dedicated to serving communities.

She said: “I took early retirement from Salford Council in 2011 and about that time somebody began to twist my arm about being elected a councillor.

“I’ve worked for charities, voluntary organisations but mostly local government, so I’m a bit of a sucker for punishment to then stand for council.”

Her career has also included spells with Rochdale Council Manchester City Council and working on regenerating Wythenshawe in south Manchester

Born in Salford but brought up in Prestwich from the age of four, Cllr Black was educated at Stand Grammar School (now Phillips High School) before heading to Birmingham University to study English and History.

After graduating from the West Midlands university she went to Montreal University, in Canada on a student scholarship to study comparative literature.

A spell in London working with single-parent family followed the Manchester City supporter she returned to Bury in 1979, and it has remained her home ever since.

Cllr Black, who will be the seventh Jewish Mayor of Bury, married husband Mark Sankey at called Sha’arei Shalom synagogue and it is in Whitefield.

They have two daughters Maya, aged 25 and 27-year-old Elena.

Away from her civic duties Cllr Black enjoys travelling – particularly to France as she picked up the language in Montreal – and is planning at trip to the west coast of Scotland.

And she says that her Cairn Terrier, Dylan, has become very much part of the family since her daughters left home.

“He is smashing and he tramps all over Prestwich with me,” she says.