A COUNCIL leader has stepped down because she is suffering from breast cancer.
Sue Pitts has held the post since last year's Liberal Democrat landslide victory on Durham City Council.
The group has elected Fraser Reynolds, cabinet member for the environment and community development, as her successor.
She said: "I am enormously proud of what the Liberal Democrat administration has achieved in its first 18 months and am very grateful to have had the ability to shape that. Now I have been diagnosed as having breast cancer, I am no longer able to give the job of leader the care Durham deserves."
Councillor Reynolds, who represents Bearpark and Witton Gilbert, said: "Becoming leader of Durham City Council is a great honour. I wish, however, that it would have happened in different circumstances.
"Sue Pitts will be a hard act to follow."
He thanked Coun Pitts for her hard work and wished her a speedy recovery.
Coun Pitts will continue to serve as a councillor for the Elvet ward in the centre of the city.
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