IT was a dinner date with a difference. When the Lord Mayor of York, Councillor Janet Looker, wanted to thank her official consort, she had to send out more than 30 invitations.

Over the past 12 months friends, family members and colleagues have all acted as consort to Coun Looker, attending a range of official engagements and escorting her to numerous events.

On Saturday night the crowd of consorts - men and women - gathered together at the Mansion House for a celebratory meal to "have a final fling".

Coun Looker was the first Lord Mayor to have several consorts during her year in office, and said she was likely to be the last.

She said: "I've had my family, both my daughters, colleagues from the council and old friends. There have been at least 35 people, but not all of them could come to the dinner.

"The Lord Mayor's partner usually takes the role, or sometimes people invite a daughter or a close relative to go to all the events. I didn't have anybody who could do the whole lot. It's been great fun, choosing nice events for people to come to.

"I'm the first Lord Mayor to do that and I don't think it will happen again - I think it's been a bit of a one-off."

When Coun Looker was nominated for the position in January last year she quickly announced that her husband Bob would not be acting as her consort because he held different political views from her.

Mr Looker, a staunch socialist, told the Evening Press at the time that he was happy for his wife, who is a Labour councillor, but had "disagreements with all the flummery of the Lord Mayoral position".

Updated: 10:56 Wednesday, May 11, 2005