On 18 May 2026 I became the 95th person to become Mayor of Cheltenham since William Nash Skillicorne was first elected Mayor 150 years ago in 1876. A wonderful Mayor-Making was held in Cheltenham’s grand Town Hall in which I paid my respects to Skillicorne and four illustrious predecessors who have also been MP as well as Mayor: Charles Irving, Daniel Lipson, James Agg-Gardner and Baron de Ferrières.
I cannot really hope to match any of their reputations. But I drew lessons from each: Irving‘s attention to the less well-off in our community not just the great and the good, Lipson‘s eloquent opposition to Nazism, anti-semitism and intolerance in all its forms, Agg-Gardner‘s resilience and Cheltenham’s willingness to believe in people and give them second chances (and in his case third and fourth ones) and the Baron‘s obvious love of life and fun which he brought to Cheltenham as an immigrant from across the channel.
My three chosen local charities for the year will I hope reflect those priorities and you can read more about ITSA Digital Trust, Art for All Mental Health and Young Gloucestershire – and the fun we plan to have supporting them – here. You can also support them right now here. If you’d like to organise a fundraising event email mayor@martinhorwood.net.
I also wanted to make our Mayor-Making a bit more fun, inclusive and diverse and celebrate Cheltenham’s exceptional tradition of live performance. So from the Cheltenham Poetry Festival, we heard local poet Chloë Jacquet who told us beautifully where she was from and where we are all from, from the recent Cheltenham Festival of the Performing Arts we watched joyous dance about friendship from Ellie and Poppy of Corraine Collins Dance Studios and heard the astonishing Jess Abiona raise the roof of the Town Hall.
And as a foretaste of our fundraising events this year we watched Indian classical dance guru Gayathiri Gowri Shankar of the Nethra Academy of Performing Arts.
Thank you to everyone who came and donated to our charities this year. If you weren’t there, I hope I’ll meet you during my mayoral year. This has already begun with a visit to the Playhouse Theatre’s fabulous Fringe Festival and a swinging evening of big band music with the Royal Marines band at the Town hall (see what else is on at the Playhouse and the Town Hall). I’ve met the mayor – or rather the Oberbürgermeisterin – of our twin town Göttingen who joined me at the Friends of Sandford Park’s summer festival and celebrated Festa della Repubblica marking the 80th anniversary of the modern democratic Italian republic with our friends and allies in the Italian contingent of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps based at Imjin Barracks. If you would like to me to attend your event in my civic capacity as mayor, do invite me at mayor@cheltenham.gov.uk. See you soon!
