A LACK of candidates means there will not be a Conservative Lord Mayor of York next year - despite the fact that it is the Tory group's turn to nominate a member for the Mansion House.

City of York Council uses a points system, based on the number of council seats held by each party, to determine which political group nominates the Lord Mayor.

Although it only has three seats, the Tory group had the most points as Labour and the Liberal Democrats had recently nominated Lord Mayors.

But two of the three Tory members are set to retire at this year's local elections, and group leader John Galvin has less than the five years service needed to be nominated.

This leaves the Liberal Democrats, as the group with the second most points, to nominate the next councillor to take office.

Coun Galvin said: "We have got to be pragmatic about this. There is no guarantee I will be re-elected anyway."

Liberal Democrats leader Steve Galloway said the group's nominee was likely to be announced at tomorrow's full council meeting.

Updated: 12:43 Monday, January 13, 2003