SUSAN Brown was officially confirmed as the new leader of Oxford City Council last night.

Last week she vowed to continue the job started by her predecessor, Bob Price, who officially stepped down at Oxford Town Hall at a full council meeting.

Mr Price had held the post for the past decade and was leader of the city council’s Labour group for two years before that. He will step down from his Hinksey Park council seat in May.

Last Friday, Ms Brown told the Oxford Mail: “We have a very clear manifesto but there’s always more work to be done. What I will be focusing on is bringing my colleagues together, as Bob did before.

“There is more we can do together than working on our own.

“Working with our partners across the system will be really important in the future.”

Ms Brown works for the NHS as a senior communications manager and the head of stakeholder engagement at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – but hopes to reduce her hours there to focus on council work.

The council also held a minute’s silence for its former Lord Mayor, Nellie Comfort.

Better known as 'Queenie' Whorley when she lived in Oxford, her name changed when she she remarried.

She was Oxford’s Sheriff in 1987 and its Lord Mayor in 1988.

She died in December, aged 88.