Funeral details announced for former lord mayor

Details have been announced for the funeral of a councillor who became the UK's first female Asian lord mayor.

Manjula Sood, who served as a member of Leicester City Council for 25 years, died on 24 December at the age of 80.

The authority has said her funeral will take place on Saturday.

A cortege will depart from Sood's family home in Roundhill Road, Leicester, at 08:00 GMT and people have been invited to pay their respects as it passes through the city.

The cortege will pause on Evington Road at 08:10 before making its way to Belgrave Neighbourhood Centre via London Road, St Georges Way and Belgrave Road.

The council said the cortege would pause outside the Belgrave Neighbourhood Centre in Rothley Street at 08:35, and continue to the Freemasons' Hall on London Road - via Belgrave Road and St Georges Way - where the funeral procession will pause again at 08:55.

Sood's funeral service will be a private ceremony, but will be broadcast afterwards online via a weblink shared by her family.

Sood has been described as "a dedicated servant to the Leicester community", having also served as assistant mayor and Labour councillor for the Stoneygate ward in the city.

According to her website, she came to Leicester from India, where she had been studying for a PhD, in 1970, and completed her studies before becoming a primary school teacher for about 20 years.

She became the city's first female Hindu councillor in October 1996, after winning a by-election triggered by her husband Paul's death earlier that year.

Twelve years later, in May 2008, she became the UK's and Leicester's first Asian female lord mayor, and at the time, said: "This is great news for a great city, especially as a woman who came here to make it her home."

Sood moved from a 25-room house in the Punjab district of Ludhiana to a small flat on an inner-city estate in Leicester with her late husband.

"There were no carpets and no heating and it was snowing. I told my husband 'I'm not staying here'," Ms Sood previously said.

"But my granddad told me to make the most of it. He said: 'Definitely not - I have given you an education, now Leicester is your home and Britain is your country'.

"Now I am glad I stayed."

While serving as lord mayor, a position she held for a year, Ms Sood was appointed an MBE and awarded an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Leicester.

Sood's family has asked for donations in her memory to be made to the Healing Little Hearts charity and the Joe Humphries Memorial Trust.

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