A reporter from South Wales has embarked on an assignment with a difference - she's going to be the lady mayoress of Swansea for a year.

Susan Bailey's husband Lawrence, who is leader of the city and county of Swansea, has been named lord mayor.

And Susan, who is Welsh affairs correspondent with the South Wales Evening Post, is ready to juggle work with the trappings of office.

There are only 26 lord mayors in the UK - the lord tag being given by the Queen - and Wales has two, in Swansea and Cardiff.

Susan said: "I'm going to continue to work full time for the Post, even though I will have a lot of civic functions to attend.

"Our first one, coincidentally, was the South Wales Evening Post Youth Proms.

"I am juggling the two jobs in a creative way. I held over some holidays from last year and I'm using my hols this year to go to functions.

"Also, I will be reporting on civic events whenever I can. This worked really well when I was deputy lady mayoress last year, and we got some great human interest stories out of it."

If there's a conflict of interests, for example, if a function is private or sensitive, Susan won't be wearing both hats, and is set to respect the chain of office.

But she added: "What I found last year is that most organisations love the publicity and welcome a story. For some it was the first time they had been in the paper.

"It is proving to be a great way to improve my list of contacts and increase the newspaper's profile in the community at the same time.

"It is going to be odd though, to have a mayoress in posh frocks and chains taking notes and pictures - but why not?"

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