Winning an election should be a cause for celebration but for Averil Older victory has come at a price.

On the one hand, she was proud to have been selected to represent the people of Central Hove in last week's local elections.

But her appointment to Brighton and Hove City Council means she has had to give up the job she loved at the city's Royal Pavilion.

Averil, a Conservative, has been a part time guide at the Pavilion for the past three years and stopped working at the attraction during the campaign.

Now, she cannot resume because political rules dictate that as a councillor, she is barred from taking a paid job with the authority.

Averil, whose hobby is local history, said: "I am very upset this has happened as I loved being at the Pavilion."

Not everyone expected Averil to win one of the two seats in the newly-formed Central Hove ward but she was quietly confident, even though she was facing existing Lib Dem councillors Mark Barnard and Jenny Barnard-Langston.

But with colleague Jan Young, she carried out a lot of work in the area and it paid off. They made play of their names as the Young and Older team.

She said: "It was a good clean fight and a straight contest with the Lib Dems. I think I won because I know a lot of people in the area and have lived there for 18 years.

"People also believed the Conservatives when we said we were going to stop the King Alfred schemes."

Averil is now short of cash, having not been paid for six weeks but she will receive an allowance as a councillor.