HEARTSTART Malvern and Malvern Foodbank are the two charities that the town's new mayor has chosen to support during his year in office.

Cllr Neil Morton, a member for the Chase ward, was elected mayor at the recent annual council meeting, with Cllr Lynne Lambeth elected deputy mayor.

Foodbank chairman Peter Buchanan said: "Over the first four months of 2019, donations have averaged just under 2,000kg a month.

"This has enabled us to support 521 adults and 334 children who might otherwise have gone to bed hungry. As ever, we give enormous thanks to the many, mostly anonymous, generous people of Malvern who regularly support our work”.

Richard Vakis-Lowe, chairman of Heartstart Malvern, said: "“In just over two years, Heartstart Malvern has provided free training to almost 3,000 people and has installed 16 public access defibrillators.

"Every single penny that we receive as the Mayor’s charity will be spent directly on our life-saving work in Malvern to provide more free training and to install more defibrillators."

Cllr Morton said: “I am both honoured and delighted to have been elected as Mayor of Malvern and look forward to serving the town in the best way I can. I would also like to thank the outgoing Mayor Cynthia Palmer for all of her hard work over the last three years."