A retired academic and arch-critic of council plans for the new library has been appointed as the new Lord Mayor of Birmingham.

Coun Michael Wilkes, a Professor Emeritus of the University of Birmingham, was handed the chain of office at the City Council’s Annual Meeting yesterday.

The Liberal Democrat councillor for Hall Green has been one of the most forensic examiners of council policy and was only last week taking officials behind the new £193 million Library of Birmingham to task in a scrutiny review.

But with a new ceremonial role to play he will no longer be able to publicly challenge city leaders over policy.

During the ceremony he announced his four charities for the year; St Basil’s for homeless youngsters, women’s educational charity WAITS (Women Acting in Today’s Society),

Pancreatic Cancer Research and the newly established The Lord Mayor’s Engineering Scholarship to support young engineering students.

Raised in the Black Country he went to school and university in Birmingham before settling in Hall Green with wife Vivienne, the new Lady Mayoress, after their wedding in 1970.

The couple share a passion for the works of JRR Tolkien and are very active in the promotion of the Lord of the Rings author, through the Birmingham Tolkein Group, the drama group Shire Producations and as organisers of the annual Middle Earth Weekend.

He holds the title of Professor Emeritus and is a member of the University Court. He was Dean of the former Faculty of Commerce and Social Science 1991-1995.

The couple, who have lived in Hall Green since their marriage in 1970, have three grown-up sons who work in environmental consulting, the water industry and surveying, with backgrounds in geology and archaeology.

The Lord Mayor said; “I am deeply honoured to be Lord Mayor of Birmingham, also my wife Vivienne, who will be Lady Mayoress. We are both conscious of the auspicious footsteps in which we follow, and are immensely grateful to the City Council for this great opportunity, which we look forward to fulfilling to the very best of our abilities.”

Labour Coun Chauhdry Rashid, who has served as Lord Mayor for the last 12 months, will be Deputy for the next year.