DEWSBURY Liberal Democrat councillor Karam Hussain is set to be the next mayor of Kirklees.

He will be proposed for the office at the council’s annual meeting and mayor-making ceremony on Wednesday, May 21.

And for the first time the Green Party will figure in the civic team, through Newsome councillor Julie Stewart-Turner who has been nominated to be the deputy mayor.

Clr Hussain, currently deputy mayor, is married with four children and five grand-children. He was born in Azad, Kashmir, and spent his childhood studying and growing up there.

At the age of 15 he moved to the England and started working locally.

He has lived in the same area for over 30 years.

Clr Hussain has undertaken a range of voluntary work and held posts such as executive member for Kirklees Racial Equality Council and trustee of a local mosque.

In the mid-1980s he joined the then Liberal Party. In 1998 he was elected as the first Liberal Democrat councillor for Dewsbury West.

In 2004 he was elected as deputy chairman of West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority and in 2005 was elected as chairman.

The mayoress will be Clr Hussain’s daughter-in-law, Mrs Noreen Kantar. She is married to his son, Aran, and the couple have four children.

Clr Stewart-Turner was born in Richmond, Surrey. She moved to Yorkshire in 1991 to continue to develop her career in management consultancy and at the age of 30 took advantage of an opportunity to seek new adventures in South Africa.

After varied working and life experiences she returned to Huddersfield and settled in Taylor Hill. She became actively involved in saving Lockwood & Salford Village Green, and was a founder of the Yorkshire Games.

She is proud that she was conferred honorary ‘Yorkshire lass’ status by the locals.

Clr Stewart-Turner became a Kirklees Green Party councillor in May, 2002.

She is a member of Overview and Scrutiny Committee, deputy chairman of the Community Cohesion Programme Board and the council's Corporate Parenting Committee. Her husband Darrel will be her consort during her year as deputy mayor.